David H. Auston Appointed to UCSB Energy Frontier Research Center Post
Former president of Kavli Foundation brings broad
experience and expertise to Center for Energy Efficient Materials
Santa Barbara, California, November 4, 2009—David
H. Auston has been appointed Associate Director of the Center for
Energy Efficient Materials (CEEM) at UC Santa Barbara. As associate
director, Auston will be responsible for the center’s strategic plan,
for managing the center’s research activities and programs, and for
interfacing with the Department of Energy.
“We’re extremely gratified to have David join us,” commented John Bowers, Director both of CEEM and of UCSB’s Institute for Energy Efficiency. “He brings to the center deep experience and knowledge both in the science on which we’re focused and in institutional administration. He is a major asset for the center.”
Dr. Auston’s career spans a wide range of experience in industry and
academia. He joined the scientific staff of AT&T’s Bell
Laboratories (now Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs) in Murray Hill, New Jersey
in 1969, where he conducted research on nonlinear optics, lasers and
solid-state physics. In 1982 he became a department head in the Physics
Research Division, with responsibility for a wide range of research
topics related to ultrafast dynamical phenomena, including, lasers,
nonlinear optics, optoelectronics, nanotechnology, and solid-state
materials.
In 1987, he moved to Columbia University as Professor of Electrical
Engineering and Applied Physics, serving later as Chairman of the
Department of Electrical Engineering and as Dean of the School of
Engineering and Applied Science and the Morris A. Shapiro Professor of
Engineering. He moved to Rice University in Houston in 1994 as Provost
and Herman Brown Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In
1999 he became president of Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland where he was also a tenured member of the faculty of the
Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering & Computer
Science.
Most recently, he served as the first president (2002-2009) of the
Kavli Foundation, a new foundation dedicated to supporting basic
scientific research through an international program of research
institutes, prizes, symposia, and endowed professorships in the fields
on astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience, and theoretical physics.
Auston’s most significant contributions to research have been in the
field of picosecond and femtosecond optics and their applications to
nonlinear optics and solid-state materials. He helped establish the
field of ultrafast optoelectronics, which uses picosecond and
femtosecond lasers to measure, with very high time precision, the
dynamical electronic properties of materials.
A native of Toronto, Ontario, Auston earned his bachelor’s degree in
engineering physics and his master’s in electrical engineering from the
University of Toronto. He was awarded his Ph.D. in electrical
engineering from the University of California at Berkeley In 1969. He
became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1987.
He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the
National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. He has also been elected a fellow of the American Physical
Society, the Optical Society of America, and the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers. Dr. Auston is the recipient of the
R.W. Wood prize of the Optical Society of America and the Quantum
Electronics and the Morris E. Leeds Awards of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He has served on numerous
committees of the National Research Council and other professional and
learned societies.
# # #
About the Center for Energy Efficient Materials
The Center for Energy Efficient Materials (CEEM) at UC Santa Barbara is
an Energy Frontier Research Center, established under the aegis of
UCSB’s Institute for Energy Efficiency and funded by the Department of
Energy. The center’s research is focused on materials in three key
application areas: photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and solid
state-lighting. CEEM is one of 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers
across the nation. CEEM has been awarded $19 million for five years of
operations.
# # #
About the Institute for Energy Efficiency
The Institute for Energy Efficiency at UC Santa Barbara is a research
institute dedicated to developing technological solutions that will
forever change energy production, energy utilization, and energy
management. The Institute comprises six Solutions Groups, each focused
on an area with high potential impact on critical energy issues:
Lighting, Production & Storage, Buildings, Computing, Electronics
& Photonics, and Policy and Economics.
# # #
About the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara
The College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara is a global leader in
bioengineering, chemical and computational engineering, materials
science, nanotechnology and physics. UCSB boasts five Nobel Laureates
(four in sciences and engineering) and one winner of the prestigious
international Millennium Technology Prize. Our students, professors and
staff thrive in a uniquely-successful interdisciplinary and
entrepreneurial culture. Our professors’ research is among the most
cited by their peers, evidence of the significance and relevance of
their work.
# # #
