Highly acclaimed academia, Prof. Deji Akinwande, has been selected to receive a 2016 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by President Obama, the United States government’s highest honor for scientists and engineers in the early stages of research. Prof. Akinwande is an associate professor in electrical and computer engineering and the Jack Kilby/Texas Instruments Endowed Faculty Fellow in Computer Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.
Prof.Deji Akinwande received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2009, where he conducted research on the synthesis, device physics, and circuit applications of carbon nanotubes and graphene. His Master’s research in Applied Physics at Case Western Reserve University pioneered the design and development of near-field microwave probe tips for nondestructive imaging and studies of materials.
He was among 106 recipients announced by the White House last week Thursday. The winners, who will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., this spring, were selected for having research that is both innovative and beneficial to society. Prof. Akinwande is one of two PECASE recipients from The University of Texas at Austin. The other recipient is Prof. Keji Lai from the Department of Physics.
He is currently an Associate Professor with the University of Texas at Austin. The current focus of his research explores materials and electronic systems based on 2D atomic layers. He is a co-inventor of a high-frequency chip-to-chip interconnect and an electrically small antenna for bio-electronics. Prof. Akinwande has been honored with the inaugural IEEE Nano Geim and Novoselov Graphene Prize, the NSF CAREER award, the Army and DTRA Young Investigator awards, the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, and was a past recipient of fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Stanford DARE Initiative. He is one of the directors of the NASCENT ERC center at UT Austin. He recently co-authored a textbook on carbon nanotubes and graphene device physics by Cambridge University Press, 2011. His work on flexible graphene systems was selected as among the “best of 2012” by the nanotechweb online technology news portal and has been featured on MIT’s technology review and other technical media outlets.
According to his website – His company is conducting basic and applied research at the frontier of nanomaterials, flexible nanoelectronics, bioelectronics, RF integrated circuits, and electromagnetics. Our passion lies in the discovery, understanding, and application of new paradigms to enable novel ubiquitous systems that can address societal needs.
Honors and Awards
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), 2016
• IEEE Nanotechnology Early Career Award, 2015
• Engineering School Nominee for Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, 2015
• TI/Jack Kilby Endowed Faculty Fellowship, 2013-present
• IEEE Senior Member, 2013
• IEEE NANO Geim and Novoselov (Inaugural) Graphene Prize 2012
• NSF Faculty CAREER Award 2012
• DTRA Young Investigator Award 2012
• 3M Nontenured Faculty Award 2012
• Army Research Office Young Investigator Award 2011
• Office of Naval Research Grant Award 2010
• Stanford Future-Faculty DARE Fellow, 2008-2010 (12 fellows selected out of 110 senior Ph.D Candidates from all the Schools at Stanford University)
• Ford Foundation Fellow, 2006-2009 (60 fellows out of over 1000 applicants)
• Alfred P. Sloan Scholar, 2006-2008 (Selected Stanford Ph.D Candidate)
• Stanford EE314 Course (RF Integrated Circuit Design): “Design Award” for outstanding Low-Noise Amplifier Designs by Prof. Thomas Lee (1 of 3 out of a class of ~150 students)
