Saif Islam, campus director of CITRIS at UC Davis, has been awarded the 2024 Aden and Marjorie Meinel Technology Achievement Award by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. He was honored for his innovative work in ultra-fast and highly efficient photodetectors enabled by photon-trapping structures.
A professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Davis, Islam’s research has been integral to the development and real-world application of advanced semiconductor electronic and photonic devices. One of his research triumphs has been to expand the capabilities of low-dimensional materials, allowing them to be incorporated into sensors, detectors, transistors, flexible multifunctional optoelectronics and energy-conversion systems. He holds 42 U.S. and international patents as inventor or co-inventor for novel materials and devices, and in 2014, Islam was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors, an accolade granted to those whose inventions have tangibly benefited society.