11/29/2012
Two Engineering at Illinois faculty members--Kent Choquette, electrical and computer engineering, and Philip Phillips, physics--were among the six University of Illinois facutly named 2012 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Written by
Two Engineering at Illinois faculty members--Kent Choquette, electrical and computer engineering, and Philip Phillips, physics--were among the six University of Illinois facutly named 2012 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
“This year’s class of AAAS Fellows reflects the diversity of fields in which Illinois shines,” said Phyllis Wise, the chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus. “From anthropology, psychology and animal biology to engineering, chemistry and physics, our faculty members are clearly recognized as leaders in their disciplines, as researchers and as educators.”
Choquette, an Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering, was honored for his “distinguished contributions to the science and technology of semiconductor vertical cavity surface emitting lasers.” After working at an industrial and national laboratory for ten years, Choquette came back to academia because he wanted to teach and investigate new areas of technology.
At Illinois, Choquette’s research in the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory focuses on semiconductor photonic and optoelectronic device physics, fabrication technologies, and systems with a strong emphasis on vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). In addition to developing new VCSEL devices—such as composite resonator VCSELs and vertical cavity photonic integrated circuits—and establishing new VCSEL applications, his group is also involved with new compound semiconductor processing technologies, such as selective oxidation and heterogeneous integration techniques, and pursuing the next generation of photonic devices, such as photonic crystal waveguides and cavities, to enable further optical communication advances.
Phillips was chosen for “distinguished contributions to theoretical condensed matter physics, including the developments of the random dimer model and the concept of ‘Mottness.’” Phillips is a theoretical condensed matter physicist whose leading-edge research on high-temperature cuprate superconductors focuses on explaining current experimental observations that challenge the standard paradigms of electron transport and magnetism. Phillips applies geometry and quantum field theory to disordered and strongly correlated low-dimensional systems to understand the properties of these materials.
Phillips’s work has earned him an international reputation. He is the inventor of various models for Bose metals, of the term “Mottness,” and of the random dimer model which exhibits extended states in one dimension, thereby representing an exception to Anderson's localization theorem. He is the author of the comprehensive textbook Advanced Solid State Physics, published by the Cambridge University Press.
AAAS, which publishes the journal Science, was founded in 1848; it is the world’s largest general scientific society. The election of AAAS Fellows began in 1874.
This year, 702 members were elevated to the rank of Fellow in recognition of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. In addition to Choquette and Phillips, the other University of Illinois faculty chosen as AAAS Fellows includes: animal biology professor Chi-Hing Christina Cheng, psychology professor Neal Cohen, chemistry professor So Hirata, and anthropology professor Lisa Lucero.
_____________________
Contact: Kent Choquette, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 217/265-0563.
Philip Phillips, Department of Physics, 217/244-2003.
Writer: Chelsey Coombs, intern, U of I News Bureau, 217/333-5802.
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.