Naomi Halas, University Professor and Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), has been honored with the 2024 Houston Inventor of the Year Award by the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association (HIPLA).
Halas is being recognized by HIPLA as “an undisputed world pioneer in the field of nanophotonics, the study and use of nanoparticles (typically noble metals) excited by light energy.”
She was nominated for the honor by George Webb III ’88, ’91, intellectual property attorney, industry relations director of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership and HIPLA member.
“Naomi has become one of the most accomplished researchers and inventors the city of Houston or the state of Texas has seen in this century. Her inventions have been the foundation of not only a new field of science, but of vital technologies in medicine and energy,” said Webb, who emphasized Halas’ research into nanoshells for cancer treatment and nanophotonic catalysts for energy decarbonization.
Halas’ work in nanotechnology has enabled the creation of metal nanoparticles possessing structural features designed to interact with light in specific ways that can be deployed in a variety of contexts, including biomedicine, optoelectronics, chemical sensing, catalysis and water treatment.
Halas earned her doctorate in physics from Bryn Mawr College, and, having performed her graduate research at IBM Yorktown, she then served as a postdoctoral fellow at AT&T Bell Laboratories. She joined the Rice faculty in 1989 and has joint appointments in biomedical engineering, chemistry, and physics and astronomy. She is former director of the Smalley-Curl Institute and director of the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice.
She is the first Rice faculty member to be elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering for research carried out while at the university. Halas was named University Professor, Rice’s highest academic rank, in 2023. She has also been elected to the National Academy of Inventors, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters.
Halas has received 24 patents for applications of nanophotonics in medicine, chemistry, physics and engineering. According to Google Scholar, Halas’ publications have been cited more than 130,000 times, her h-index is 168 and she is consistently ranked among the world’s most highly cited researchers.
Halas will formally receive the award during HIPLA’s Fall Happy Hour on Nov. 20 at the True Anomaly Brewing Co. in Houston.