Zetian Mi receives 2024 ISCS Quantum Devices Award

Prof. Zetian Mi received the 2024 International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS) Quantum Devices Award “For seminal contributions to growth of semiconductor quantum nanostructures and their applications in optoelectronics.” 

First started in 1966, ISCS has been the preeminent international conference in the field of compound semiconductors for over half a century. Recipients of the ISCS Quantum Devices Award are recognized for their “pioneering contributions to the fields of compound semiconductor devices and quantum nanostructure devices, which have made a major scientific or technological impact in the past 20 years.”

Prof. Mi’s research is focused on the investigation of (ultra)wide bandgap semiconductors and their applications in optoelectronic, clean energy, and quantum devices and systems. His group has developed some of the world’s smallest, most efficient micro-LED pixels for mobile displays, virtual/augmented reality, and TVs. 

Mi and his team have also developed some of the world’s most efficient deep UV LEDs, and the first electrically pumped deep UV laser diodes that can potentially replace conventional mercury/xenon lamps, which include toxic materials, for air purification and disinfection. He founded the company NS Nanotech, Inc., which offers some of the world’s first solid-state source of far-UVC light to deactivate airborne coronavirus and numerous other air- and surface pathogens. 

Mi has also been perfecting artificial photosynthesis to transform sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into clean hydrogen and high-energy-rich fuels, and he founded the company NX Fuels to bring this technology to market. NX Fuels recently reached the 2nd round in the Hydrogen Shot Incubator Prize, sponsored by U.S. DoE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office.

In yet another area of investigation, Mi and his team are continually advancing our fundamental knowledge of ferroelectric semiconductor materials and devices, which are particularly promising in microelectronic memory devices for neuromorphic computing and artificial intelligence, as well as integrated quantum photonics.  

He is co-editor of two newly published books that are part of Elsevier’s Semiconductors and Semimetals series: 2D Excitonic Materials and Devices, and Emerging Ferroelectric Materials and Devices. 

Prof. Mi is Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Quantum Electronics. He served as General Chair of the 2020 IEEE Photonics Conference and the 2016-17 IEEE Photonics Society Summer Topicals Meeting, Co-chair of the 2017 International Symposium on Semiconductor Light Emitting Diodes, and Vice President for Conferences of IEEE Photonics Society. He is a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Nanotechnology Council and the IEEE Photonics Society, and a Fellow of APS, IEEE, Optica, and SPIE. 

Mi was presented with the award at Compound Semiconductor Week (CSW) 2024. He will chair CSW 2025, to be held in Banff, Canada.