Datta, Supriyo

2013 Distinguished Alumni Award

For outstanding contributions in research and education in the fields of nanotechnology, quantum transport, and electronic devices.

Supriyo Datta is the Thomas Duncan Distinguished Professor at Purdue University. His research focuses on nanotechnology and explores current flow in nanoscale electronic devices. His group pioneered the description of quantum transport far from equilibrium, described in his books Electronic Transport in Mesoscopic Systems and Quantum Transport: Atom to Transistor. His approach has been widely adopted in the field of nanoelectronics.

After receiving his B Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1975, Supriyo attended Illinois for his MSEE and PhD. He joined Purdue in 1981 and was named the Thomas Duncan Distinguished Professor in 1999. From 2002-2007, Supriyo served as director of the Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing and editor of IEEE Transactions Electron Devices.

Supriyo has received Technical Field Awards from the IEEE for both research and graduate teaching. He wrote what is widely recognized as the first paper on semiconductor-based spintronics, and his work in spin electronics and molecular electronics has stimulated many experiments and innovations. Supriyo is a fellow of IEEE, the American Physical Society, and the Institute of Physics. He was inducted into the Purdue Book of Great Teachers in 2008 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2012.