Physicist and Harvard professor recognized for her leadership in nanoscale research and academia
Evelyn Hu, the Tarr-Coyne Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, has been named the 2020 Mildred S. Dresselhaus lecturer.
Dresselhaus—the “Queen of Carbon Science”—was a member of the MIT faculty for 50 years. She led MIT and her field not only through her research and teaching, but with her longstanding commitment to promoting gender equity in science and engineering, and a dedication to mentorship and teaching. The Dresselhaus Lecture, inaugurated in 2019, recognizes a significant figure in science and engineering whose leadership and impact echo the late Professor Dresselhaus’s life, accomplishments, and values.
“Exceptional scholarship and leadership define Evelyn Hu’s career. She has developed groundbreaking techniques for designing at the nanoscale, used those techniques to produce extraordinary innovations, and extended her impact as an inspirational mentor and teacher,” says Vladimir Bulović, the Founding Director of MIT.nano and Fariborz Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technologies. “We are honored to have her present this year’s Dresselhaus Lecture."
Professor Hu’s research focuses on micro- and nanofabrication techniques to form structures and devices with exceptional electronic and photonic behavior. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) awarded Hu the IEEE Andrew S. Grove Award earlier this year citing her innovative contributions to the continued shrinking of electronic circuits and research that has led to the development of lasers with record low threshold values, single-photon sources, improved extraction of light from indium-gallium-nitride light emitting diodes (LEDs), and coupled light-matter states.
In addition to her research, Hu has been recognized for her leadership and mentorship. She received the NSF Distinguished Teaching Fellow award in 2005, an honor that recognizes individuals who have contributed significantly to the education of students in STEM, as well as an AAAS Lifetime Mentor Award in 2000, which celebrates individuals who, during their careers, demonstrate extraordinary leadership to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering fields and careers.
The Dresselhaus lecturer is selected by a committee of MIT faculty from a list of nominations submitted by MIT faculty, students, and researchers; scholars from other institutions and research laboratories, and members of the general public. The process and lecture are coordinated by MIT.nano, an open access facility for nanoscience and nanoengineering of which Dresselhaus was a strong faculty supporter.
In her talk, “Transforming Defects into Opportunities: Leveraging the Nanoscale,” Evelyn Hu will give tribute to what she describes as one of Millie’s contributions—that it is “not only the ‘perfection’ of quantum confinement that could improve materials performance, but also features usually regarded as ‘imperfections’: the many internal interfaces characteristic of nanostructures that might be used as a means to control and enhance the thermoelectric behaviour.”
Hu will discuss the performance of defects (such as vacancies, or missing atoms) in crystalline semiconductors, where the defect, also termed qubit, can manifest optical emission at a variety of wavelengths, distinctively coupled to long spin coherence times.
In addition to her professorship, Evelyn Hu is currently a co-director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative. Prior to Harvard, she was a faculty member at University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) in the Departments of Materials and of Electrical and Computer Engineering. While at UCSB, she also served as the founding scientific co-director of the California NanoSystems Institute, a joint initiative between UCSB and UCLA. Before joining UCSB, Hu worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories. She received her Ph.D. and Master’s in physics from Columbia University, and a B.A. in physics from Barnard College.
The 2020 lecture will be delivered virtually on November 16. This distinguished lecture is free and open to the public. Advanced registration is required.
>>Read more about The Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecture Series.