Moustakas Garners Optica’s Holonyak Award
Distinguished professor’s pioneering discoveries led to today’s flat-panel screens
Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Photonics and Optoelectronics Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE, Physics) has been awarded the Nick Holonyak Jr. Award by Optica, the prestigious professional association formerly known as the Optical Society of America (OSA). The group conferred the award on Moustakas for his pioneering contributions to nitride semiconductor materials and optical devices that helped build the foundation for efficient blue and ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
Moustakas, who joined Boston University in 1987, discovered and patented methods for making gallium nitride (GaN) films with high crystalline quality, which led to the development of blue LEDs and, eventually, white LEDs. The latter paved the way for modern smartphone and computer screens, and kicked off the ongoing transition from incandescent to LED bulbs (which now account for nearly half of the illumination market, according to a federal survey).
Intellectual property related to Moustakas’ discoveries has been licensed by BU to more than 40 companies around the globe, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Sony. Moustakas himself co-founded two companies: RayVio, which makes UV LEDs; and LARQ, which makes water sterilization products.
“I am pleased to receive the award, named after Professor Nick Holonyak Jr., whose distinguished contributions to the field of optics through the development of semiconductor-based light emitting diodes and lasers, were an inspiration to me during my entire career,” says Moustakas.
“I am extremely happy for Ted,” says Distinguished Professor of Engineering Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE, MSE, Physics), an Optica Fellow. “The Nick Holonyak Award is one of the most prestigious awards in the semiconductor field, and Ted has more than revolutionized the field—so this recognition is, in fact, overdue.”
Moustakas holds 41 U.S. patents and has presented 138 invited, keynote, and plenary talks in national and international conferences. The 363 papers he has authored in technical journals have been cited more than 19,000 times. A prime mover behind the creation of the BU Photonics Center and the BU College of Engineering’s Materials Science and Engineering Division, Moustakas was named Boston University Innovator of the Year in 2013.
In addition to awarding him the Holonyak honors this year, Optica named Moustakas a fellow in 2021. Moustakas is also a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Electrochemical Society, the Materials Research Society, a life fellow of IEEE, and a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.