- Joined
- Aug 25, 2007
- Messages
- 2,007
- Points
- 63
So, I'm a frequent lurker and infrequent poster around here, and I've really grown to love lasers. Being a college student, I don't have the funds to do everything I want to yet, but I'm getting there.
What I'm writing about now, however, is my education. I'll be graduating this may with my BS in materials science, and I'm heading to graduate school. Through this laser hobby, my interest in semiconductor materials and device fabrication, and in renewable energy, I've decided to continue study for a Ph.D in materials science with an emphasis in photonics. By photonics, I mean light-emitting (laser diodes and LEDs), light absorbing (photovoltaics), and light controlling (plasmonics, etc) materials.
The interesting thing came up last week when I got my first graduate school acceptance, to materials science department of the University of California at Santa Barbara. I knew it was a leading school for electronic and photonic materials, and was looking through the faculty pages when I found a name that was quite familiar, Shuji Nakamura. For anyone who doesn't know, Professor Nakamura was working for Nichia when he was the first person to successfully demonstrate a high-power blue LED, made of GaN, which lead directly and almost immediately to our beloved white LEDs and our especially beloved blue and violet laser diodes. Now, Nichia makes these blue and violet laser diodes for all of us to enjoy, and Prof. Nakamura is a professor at UCSB. If I do end up going to UCSB, I'm going to try my best to get into his research group and work on new and better laser diodes, LEDs, and, well, whatever else he wants me to work on (since he has proven his genius). Maybe if I show up the first day with a violet laser that he made possible, he might be impressed and let me work with him.
So, in summation, a BIG thanks to all the great posters here who make my laser hobby possible. Just thought it amazing that, by semi-coincidence, I may actually have a shot at working in Prof. Nakamura's research lab, the person that we perhaps owe more to than any one else in the fields of LEDs and lasers.
What I'm writing about now, however, is my education. I'll be graduating this may with my BS in materials science, and I'm heading to graduate school. Through this laser hobby, my interest in semiconductor materials and device fabrication, and in renewable energy, I've decided to continue study for a Ph.D in materials science with an emphasis in photonics. By photonics, I mean light-emitting (laser diodes and LEDs), light absorbing (photovoltaics), and light controlling (plasmonics, etc) materials.
The interesting thing came up last week when I got my first graduate school acceptance, to materials science department of the University of California at Santa Barbara. I knew it was a leading school for electronic and photonic materials, and was looking through the faculty pages when I found a name that was quite familiar, Shuji Nakamura. For anyone who doesn't know, Professor Nakamura was working for Nichia when he was the first person to successfully demonstrate a high-power blue LED, made of GaN, which lead directly and almost immediately to our beloved white LEDs and our especially beloved blue and violet laser diodes. Now, Nichia makes these blue and violet laser diodes for all of us to enjoy, and Prof. Nakamura is a professor at UCSB. If I do end up going to UCSB, I'm going to try my best to get into his research group and work on new and better laser diodes, LEDs, and, well, whatever else he wants me to work on (since he has proven his genius). Maybe if I show up the first day with a violet laser that he made possible, he might be impressed and let me work with him.
So, in summation, a BIG thanks to all the great posters here who make my laser hobby possible. Just thought it amazing that, by semi-coincidence, I may actually have a shot at working in Prof. Nakamura's research lab, the person that we perhaps owe more to than any one else in the fields of LEDs and lasers.
