Reception preceding the lecture at 3:30 p.m. in the CLSL A Atrium
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 she studies the interaction and control of light by engineered nanoparticles. She is author of more than 350 refereed publications (H-index=159, Google Scholar; H-index=140, Web of Science) with more than 100,000 citations (Google Scholar; >70,000 citations, Web of Science), has more than 20 issued patents, and has presented more than 600 invited talks. She has been a Highly Cited Researcher in Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science since 2013. Two companies have been founded based on her research: Nanospectra Biosciences (Photothermal Cancer Therapy, in clinical trials for prostate cancer) and Syzygy Plasmonics (ambient-temperature Photocatalysis for Hydrogen on demand). She is Fellow of six professional societies spanning Physics, Chemistry, Optics, Photonics, and Materials Research. 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.
