Coleman elected to National Academy of Engineering

Photonics pioneer James J. Coleman has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering. Coleman is the Intel Alumni Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a professor of materials science and engineering at Illinois.

“It is a real honor and a privilege to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering,” said Coleman, a researcher in the Micro and Nanotechnology Lab and the Coordinated Science Lab. “I am fortunate to have worked over the years with an amazing group of very talented colleagues and students, at institutions that value high quality work. This honor better reflects our collective success than anything I might have accomplished.”

Coleman was cited for his work in semiconductor lasers and photonic materials. His research focuses on materials for optoelectronics – devices that convert electricity into light or vice-versa, such as lasers, light sensors, solar cells and fiber optics. He helped develop metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), a growth method widely used to make semiconductor devices. As the director of the Semiconductor Laser Laboratory at Illinois. Coleman oversees research using MOCVD of III-V semiconductors to explore applications in lasers, quantum dots and other optical structures.

“This is a significant recognition and prestigious honor for one of our distinguished faculty,” said Ilesanmi Adesida, the dean of the College of Engineering. “Dr. Coleman’s research has added considerable knowledge to the field of semiconductor lasers and photonic devices, and his many successful patents and contributions to the engineering literature remain a testament of those achievements. He is also an Illinois alumnus, so we are doubly proud of his achievements.”

Coleman earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois. He worked at Bell Laboratories and Rockwell International before joining the faculty in 1982. He has published more than 400 scholarly journal articles and holds seven patents. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Optical Society of America, SPIE (the international society for optics and photonics), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society.

In addition to Coleman, several Engineering at Illinois alumni and a former faculty member were among 66 new members and 10 foreign associates announced by the Academy on Feb. 9:

Supriyo Datta (MS 1977, PhD 1979, Electrical Engineering), Thomas Duncan Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, was cited “for quantum transport modeling in nanoscale electronic devices.”

Robert W. Farquhar (BS 1959, Aerospace Engineering), executive for space exploration, KinetX Inc., Tempe, Ariz. was recognized "for deep space missions to asteroids and comets and for leading the NEAR mission to Eros."

Chao-Han Liu, distinguished visiting scholar, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, and a retired faculty member from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Illinois, was elected as an NAE Foreign Associate, cited “for contributions to ionospheric research and international leadership in atmospheric remote sensing.”

Election to the NAE is one of the highest professional honors an engineer can garner. The 2,254 members and 206 foreign associates are an elite group distinguished by their outstanding contributions to the fields of technology and engineering.
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Contact: James Coleman, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 217/333-2555.

Writer: Liz Ahlberg, physical sciences editor, U of I News Bureau, 217/244-1073.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.