Naomi Halas

Naomi J. Halas is the Stanley C. Moore professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics & Astronomy, and director of Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009), National Academy of Sciences (2013) and National Academy of Engineering (2014).

She is a Fellow of five professional societies: the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her current work focuses on nanoshells which her nanophotonics group is developing at Rice University. In 1987, she was part of a team that developed a "dark pulse" soliton while working for IBM.

Biography

Early career

Halas received her bachelor's degree from La Salle University in 1980. She obtained her master's degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1984 and her doctorate from Bryn Mawr in 1986.

She was working for IBM in 1987 when she developed a "dark pulse" soliton with Dieter Kroekel, Giampiero Giuliani and Daniel Grischkowsky. A "dark pulse" soliton is a standing wave that propagates through an optical fiber without spreading and which consists of a short interruption of a light pulse.

Nanoshells

Halas was recruited to Rice University by the mid-1990s, where she now heads the Nanoengineering Unit bearing her name. Her work in the 21st century focuses on noble metal nanoshells covering semiconducting or insulating cores. A nanoshell is a 100 nanometer spherical shell of metal (often gold) surrounding a core of silicon dioxide.

Halas's unit is investigating the special properties of nanoshells including:

• a potential treatment for cancer similar to chemotherapy but without the toxic side-effects;
• inexpensive, quick analysis of samples as small as a single molecule.

Halas has received a "Cancer Innovator" from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs of the US Department of Defense. The Department of Defense granted Halas and Dr. Jennifer West $3 million to conduct research into the potential of this treatment. Nanotechnology Now awarded Halas and West the award for Best Discovery of 2003.

Other research

Her group has also studied coherent Raman spectroscopy with fano resonances and aluminum nanoparticles.

Selected honors and awards

• 2018 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize
• 2017 Willis E. Lamb Award
• 2017 Weizmann Women and Science Award
• 2015 R. W. Wood Prize, Optical Society of America
• 2014 SPIE Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award
• 2014 Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids, American Physical Society
• 2013 Member, National Academy of Sciences
• 2013 Fellow, Materials Research Society
• 2012 Doctor of Science honoris causa, University of Victoria, Canada
• 2012 Alexander M. Cruickshank Award, Gordon Research Conferences
• 2010 R. E. Tressler Award, Materials Science and Engineering, Penn State University
• 2009 Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 2008 Fellow, IEEE- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• 2007 Doctor of Science honoris causa, La Salle University
• 2007 Fellow, SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering
• 2005 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 2003 Fellow, Optical Society of America
• 2001 Fellow, American Physical Society