Kish, Jr., Frederick A.

2000 Young Alumni Achievement Award

In recognition of his pioneering contributions in the realization of high-brightness transparent-substrate red-orange-yellow In(AlGa)P light emitting diodes (LEDs) and lamps that exceed in performance the incandescent bulb and establish an experimental basis for an ultimate lamp.

During his academic career at the University of Illinois, Frederick Kish received numerous awards for his academic achievement: a Berthold Scholarship in 1986, a Centel Corporations Scholarship in 1987, the E.C. Jordan Award in 1987, the University of Illinois Bronze Tablet in 1988, and the Robert T. Chien Award in 1992. By the completion of his graduate career at the U of I, he had become a principal contributor to the U of I's portfolio of twelve patents on the Al-based III-V native oxide, which are now highly influential in research in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs).

While at Hewlett Packard and now at Agilent Technologies, Kish has performed highly influential work on light emitting diodes (LEDs), which has led to the creation of the world's highest performing LED. This work is leading to the creation of an LED illumination lamp that can exceed typical incandescent bulbs in lumens per watt.

In recognition of his research achievements, Kish received the Optical Society of America Adolph Lomb Award in 1996, the GaAs Symposium Young Scientists Award in 1997, the MIT Technology Review 100 Award in 1999, and the IEEE/LEOS Engineering Achievement Award in 1999.