Cunningham named Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Photonics Society

Donald Biggar Willett Professor of Engineering Brian T Cunningham has been named as a distinguished lecturer by the IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Program. Cunningham is also the director of the Micro + Nanotechnology Laboratory. This program was designed to honor excellent speakers who have made technical, industrial, or entrepreneurial contributions to the field of photonics and to enhance the technical programs of the IEEE Photonics Society chapters. Chapters may request distinguished lecturers to present at chapter meetings, chapter-related events or technically co-sponsored conferences organized by a chapter.

Cunningham is excited to begin work in this new role. “I am extremely honored to have the opportunity to serve as an ambassador for the IEEE Photonics Society, and to share the work from my group with institutions around the world. I am already planning visits to multiple institutions across California, Texas, the UK, Belgium, and Australia, all in the coming year. Making new colleagues, meeting students, discussing research ideas, and sampling the local cuisine are activities that I am looking forward to," he said. "With any luck, I will simultaneously achieve Platinum status on American Airlines’ frequent flier program!”

Cunningham also serves as the theme leader for the Omics Nanotechnology for Cancer Precision Medicine (ONC-PM) and is affiliated with the Beckman Institute. Additionally, Cunningham leads the Nanosensors Group, whose research focuses on areas including smartphone biosensors, discrete frequency infrared spectroscopy, microfluidics, photonics crystal-enhanced microscopy, and tissue engineering, among others. This research group provides Cunningham the opportunity to mentor talented students, including graduate students, postdocs, and visiting scholars.

[image:28857 class:fleft]Cunningham has received multiple honors and produced many patentable discoveries. Cunningham is an alumnus of ECE ILLINOIS, earning all three of his degress from the department. His thesis research was in the field of optoelectronics and compound semiconductor material science, where he contributed to the development of crystal growth techniques that are now widely used for manufacturing solid-state lasers and high-frequency amplifiers for wireless communication.

Read the original article from the MNTL site.