Naomi Halas facts for kids

Naomi J. Halas is a leading scientist and professor at Rice University. She works in several exciting fields like biomedical engineering, chemistry, and physics. She is also the head of the Laboratory for Nanophotonics and the Smalley-Curl Institute at Rice.

Professor Halas is famous for inventing the first tiny particles, called nanoparticles, that can control light in special ways. These particles are called "plasmonic" because they interact with light using tiny waves of electrons. She has won many awards for her amazing work in nanophotonics and plasmonics. In 1987, while working at IBM, she also helped create something called a "dark pulse soliton".

She is a member of nine important science groups. These include Optica, the American Physical Society, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 2014, she was chosen to be a member of the National Academy of Engineering. This was for her work in designing tiny optical parts.

Today, her research at Rice University looks at how light and matter interact. She studies plasmonic nanoparticles for many uses. These include sensing chemicals, helping in biomedical sciences, improving catalysis (speeding up chemical reactions), and collecting energy.

Becoming a Scientist

Naomi Halas started her journey in science by earning her first degree from La Salle University in 1980. She then went on to get her master's degree in 1984 from Bryn Mawr College. She completed her doctorate, which is the highest university degree, from Bryn Mawr in 1987.

While working on her doctorate, she was a research student at the IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center. Here, she and her team created the first "dark pulse" soliton. Imagine a light wave that travels through a special fiber without spreading out. A "dark pulse" is like a short break or interruption in that light wave. During her time at IBM, she also helped start research into a technique called "time-domain terahertz spectroscopy". This method uses special light waves to study materials.

Her Scientific Journey

After finishing her studies, Professor Halas worked as a research fellow at AT&T Bell Laboratories. In 1990, she joined Rice University. There, she now leads a research group focused on nanoengineering. This group is named after her.

She became a full professor in the electrical and computer engineering and chemistry departments in 1999. Three years later, she was given the special title of Stanley C. Moore Professor. In 2004, she became the director of the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice. Since 2006 and 2009, she has also been a professor in the biomedical engineering and physics departments.

Tiny Nanoshells and Light

A big part of Professor Halas's work in the 21st century is about tiny particles called nanoshells. These are like tiny balls made of noble metals (like gold) that cover a core of a different material. Her research was the first to show that these nanoshells can control light in different ways. This depends on their size and shape. By changing how these tiny particles are built, scientists can "tune" how they interact with light.

Controlling how light and these plasmonic nanoparticles interact has many uses. It can help with sensing chemicals, making catalysis more efficient, and energy harvesting. It also has important uses in medicine, like in photodynamic therapy and other treatments.

In 2003, Professor Halas and her colleague Jennifer L. West won an award for their amazing work. They developed a new way to treat cancer using these metallic nanoshells. Professor Halas also received a special Innovator Award from the US Department of Defense. This award came with a large grant to continue her research into this cancer treatment.

Other Research Areas

Professor Halas's research also explores how to combine these plasmonic particles with other light-based systems. Her team works with the Energy Frontier Research Center to study how plasmonics can improve energy harvesting. They look at how to make semiconductor quantum dots and nanocrystals better at collecting energy.

They also use special techniques like surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and surface-enhanced infrared absorption. These methods help them develop ways to detect even single molecules.

Awards and Recognitions

Naomi Halas has received many important awards and honors for her scientific contributions:

• 2024 C.E.K. Mees Medal
• 2018 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize
• 2017 Willis E. Lamb Award
• 2017 Weizmann Women and Science Award
• 2015 R. W. Wood Prize, Optica
• 2014 SPIE Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award
• 2014 Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids, American Physical 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
• 2007 Doctor of Science honoris causa, La Salle University
• 2003 Nanotechnology Now Best Discovery Award

She has been elected to several prestigious academies and societies. These include the National Academy of Sciences (2013), National Academy of Engineering (2014), and the National Academy of Inventors (2015). She is also a fellow of the American Physical Society (2001), Optica (2003), SPIE (2007), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (2008), and the Materials Research Society (2013).

Selected publications