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2025 Nick Holonyak Jr. Award Winner

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Optica Names Zetian Mi the 2025 Nick Holonyak Jr Award Recipient

Optica is pleased to announce that Zetian Mi, University of Michigan, USA, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Nick Holonyak Jr Award. Mi is honored for outstanding contributions to the engineering of wide energy gap nanostructures for light emission and energy generation applications.

Mi is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan. He received a BS in Physics from Peking University and a PhD in Applied Physics from the University of Michigan. He served as a faculty member at McGill University before joining the University of Michigan. Mi co-founded NS Nanotech, Inc. and NX Fuels, Inc.

Mi’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of low dimensional semiconductors, optoelectronics, clean energy, and quantum photonics. He demonstrated the first room-temperature operational quantum dot laser diodes on silicon in 2005. His recent research has focused on wide bandgap semiconductors and their applications in micro-LEDs, ultraviolet optoelectronics, and artificial photosynthesis. He has developed the technology and understanding of single-crystalline ferroelectric nitrides, which have shown transformative potentials for next-generation optoelectronics, microelectronics, acousto-electronics, and micro/nanoelectron-mechanical systems.

Mi has received the Science and Engineering Award from W. M. Keck Foundation, the IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Award, the IEEE Nanotechnology Council Distinguished Lecturer Award, the ISCS Quantum Devices Award, the David E. Liddle Research Excellence Award, the Rexford E. Hall Innovation Excellence Award, and the Wise-Najafi Prize for Engineering Excellence in the Miniature World from the University of Michigan. He is a Fellow of Optica, IEEE, APS, and SPIE.

Established in 1997, the Holonyak Jr. Award recognizes significant contributions to optics based on semiconductor-based optical devices and materials, including basic science and technological applications. It honors Nick Holonyak Jr.’s distinguished contributions to the field of optics through the development of semiconductor-based light-emitting diodes and semiconductor lasers. The award is endowed by SDL Ventures, LLC, and Donald and Carol Scifres.

About Optica

Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica's renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement.

 

Headshot Photo Credit: Brenda Ahearn, Michigan Engineering
Lab Photo Credit: Joseph Xu, Michigan Engineering

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