VOLUME 13, NO. 2     NOVEMBER 2000

NSF honors physics professor

Lok C. Lew Yan Voon, assistant professor of physics, has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. Initial funding is $115,000 for "Topics in Electronic and Optical Properties of Semiconductor Nanostructures"; the grant has been approved for a total of $225,000 over four years. The NSF program fosters the development of young faculty as educators and researchers.

He is the ninth WPI professor to receive the award since the program was established in 1995. His research involves the development of a new mathematical framework for understanding and modeling the behavior of electrons in semiconductor nanostructures. Nanostructures are crystals with properties varying on a submicron scale. "The main goal of this proposed research is to discover fundamentally new optoelectronic properties of the nanostructures by developing a mathematically more exact theory," he explains. "Such basic research could lead to the development of novel photonic devices."

Lew Yan Voon has already made significant contributions to this field of research known as band structure theory. In support of the project-based curriculum at WPI and the educational component of the CAREER award, he is also involving undergraduates in the theoretical exploration of the quantum nature of materials as an extension of their classroom learning. His work has received further support from the Materials Research Society within the Undergraduate Materials Research Initiative.

An assistant professor at WPI since 1997, he holds a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Cambridge in England, an M.Sc. from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. from WPI, where he was a visiting professor from 1995 to 1997.