Moustakas Elected OSA Fellow
By Colbi Edmonds
Professor Theodore Moustakas was elected a Fellow Member of the Optical Society. He is recognized for his “seminal and sustained contributions to optical materials and devices, particularly in nitride semiconductors.”
Moustakas is a Professor Emeritus and the inaugural Distinguished Professor of Photonics and Optoelectronics. He was the lead investigator at the Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Laboratory at Boston University. Over nearly three decades, the lab’s initial focus was the growth and doping of the semiconductors of the Gallium Nitride (GaN) family and the study of their crystal structure and optoelectronic properties. The lab then shifted its focus to the development of III-nitride optoelectronic devices, particularly LEDs, lasers and detectors, covering the spectral region from deep ultraviolet to terahertz.
Moustakas has had an exceptionally productive career. His contributions cover a broad spectrum of topics in optoelectronic materials and devices, including nitride semiconductors, amorphous semiconductors, III-V compounds, diamond thin films and metallic multi-layers. He is the co-editor of eight books, including Gallium Nitride I (Academic Press, 1998) and Gallium Nitride II (academic Press, 1999), the author of chapters in eight books and 361 papers in technical journals (Google citations more than 17,000, h index 66).
Throughout his career, he has presented 138 invited, keynote and plenary talks around the globe. To date, he has been granted 39 U.S. patents and his work has resulted in the licensing of intellectual property to over 40 companies, including major manufacturers and users of blue and UV LEDs and lasers (Cree, Nichia, Philips, OSRAM, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, NEC, Blackberry, Nokia etc.).
Moustakas is a Fellow of the IEEE, Electrochemical Society, and American Physical Society, as well as a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. His work was cited in “Technology Transfer Works: 100 Cases from research to realization,” of the Better World Project. He also won several technology innovation awards and was recognized as a distinguished scholar by Boston University and received the 2013 Boston University Innovator of the Year Award.