Bio

Naomi J. Halas is the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University, where she also holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Materials Science and Nanoengineering, and Bioengineering. She received her B. S. Degree in Chemistry from La Salle University in Philadelphia, and her PhD in Physics from Bryn Mawr College. She was a graduate fellow at IBM Yorktown for her PhD research and a postdoctoral fellow at AT&T Bell Laboratories prior to joining Rice. She is best known as the first person to demonstrate that controlling the geometry of metallic nanoparticles determines their color, and pursues fundamental studies and applications of nanophotonics ranging from biomedicine to water treatment. She is author of more than 350 refereed publications, has more than 20 issued patents, and has presented more than 600 invited talks. Two companies have been founded based on her research: Nanospectra Biosciences (Photothermal Cancer Therapy, in clinical trials) and Syzygy Plasmonics (Low-temperature Photocatalysis for Hydrogen Fuels). She is Fellow of the APS, OSA, SPIE, IEEE, MRS, and the National Academy of Inventors. She has been awarded the Frank Isakson Prize and Julius Lilienfeld Prize of the APS, the R. W. Wood Prize of the OSA, the ACS Award in Colloid Chemistry, and the Spiers Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Halas has been elected to the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering (U. S.), the Royal Society of Chemistry (U. K.), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.