5/7/2021
Four Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Laboratory professors have received faculty awards from the Grainger College of Engineering for their excellent work in teaching and research. This strong showing speaks to the excellence of HMNTL faculty.
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Four Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Laboratory professors have received faculty awards from the Grainger College of Engineering for their excellent work in teaching and research. This strong showing speaks to the excellence of HMNTL faculty, according to Interim Director Xiuling Li.
“HMNTL is well represented in this year’s cohort of recipients, which is not surprising because we have some of the University’s top scholars,” said Li, a Donald Biggar Willett Professor in Engineering. “We are proud of these faculty members who promote excellence in teaching and research every day.”
Brian Cunningham, Intel Alumni Endowed Chair and Donald Bigger Willet Professor in Engineering, was awarded the 2021 Everitt Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence. Cunningham, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, focuses his research on the application of sub-wavelength optical phenomena and fabrication methods to the development of novel devices and instrumentation for the life sciences. Cunningham received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from UIUC in 1990 and is also the Director of the Center for Pathogen Diagnostics and the Center for Genomic Diagnostics, as well as the Program Leader for the Cancer Measurement Technology and Data Science at the Cancer Center at Illinois. Cunningham also served as the director of HMNTL from 2014-2020.
Minjoo (Larry) Lee, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was awarded the 2021 Deans’ Award for Excellence in Research for Associate Professor. Lee’s research mainly focuses on microelectronics and photonics, nanomaterials, quantum nanostructures, semiconductor electronic devices, semiconductor lasers and photonic devices, and semiconductor materials. Lee received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2003 and was a professor at Yale University prior to joining the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Illinois.
Arend van der Zande, an assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering, was awardedthe 2021 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research for Assistant Professor. His research includes re-engineering classic 3D systems at an atomic length scale like mechanic structures such as atomically thin membranes or flexible films and electronic structures such as transistors or photodiodes. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University in 2011 and is also affiliated with the Materials Research Lab, Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Beckman Institute, and the Micro and Nanotechnology Center.
Sanjiv Sinha, an associate professor of mechanical science and engineering, received the 2021 Stanley H. Pierce Faculty Award. His research combines theory and experiments to study the exploit electro-thermal transport in applications related to energy and thermal management. Sinha received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2005 and was named the Associate Head for Undergraduate programs in the Dept of Mechanical Science and Engineering in 2019.