Lukas Novotny Named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Lukas Novotny, Professor of Optics and Physics at the University of Rochester, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science. This year, 531 scholars around the nation have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
Robert K. Boeckman, who is the Marshall D. Gates, Jr. Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Chemistry, and William D. Jones, the C. F. Houghton Professor of Chemistry, were also named Fellows of the AAAS this year.
Novotny studies light-matter interactions on the nanometer scale. He is developing optical antennas to increase the sensitivity of photodetectors and to boost the efficiency of light-emitting devices. Using optical antennas, his research team developed a novel microscopic technique with which they have recorded the highest resolution optical images ever, a picture of a carbon nanotube only a few nanometers across and single proteins in a cell's membrane.
"Lukas Novotny is a pioneer in the field of nano-optics. His work in imaging extremely small objects like carbon nanotubes and viruses has paved the way for breakthroughs in fields such as medicine and electronics. He is also an excellent research mentor and an inspiring teacher for our students," said Wayne Knox, director of the University's Institute of Optics.
Novotny earned his doctorate in technical sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland in 1996. He joined the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester in 1999 and now holds a dual appointment as a professor of optics and physics, and a professor of biomedical engineering. He is the author of more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.