October 4, 1999 Contact: Tim Stephens (831) 459-2495; stephens@cats.ucsc.edu UC Santa Cruz engineer awarded $625,000 Packard Fellowship Researcher Ali Shakouri is helping to develop cooler computer chips. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SANTA CRUZ, CA--For the sixth consecutive year, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has garnered one of the nation's most prestigious honors for young faculty members: a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, worth a total of $625,000. Ali Shakouri, an assistant professor of electrical engineering in UCSC's Jack Baskin School of Engineering, will receive $125,000 per year for the next five years to support his pioneering research on semiconductor physics and optical communication systems. The Packard Foundation awards these fellowships to young scientists and engineers who show exceptional promise and creativity. Shakouri's research on the electrical, optical, and thermal properties of semiconductors has many potential applications, such as improving the performance of electronic devices, increasing the speed of fiber-optic networks, and developing novel devices with new functions and applications. As computer chips keep getting smaller and their speed of operation increases, the amount of heat they generate has become an important issue. Shakouri has been working on a collaborative project with researchers at other universities and in industry to develop new ways of cooling computer chips based on the thermoelectric effects in semiconductor devices made from ultrathin layers of crystalline materials. According to Shakouri, learning to manipulate the thermal properties of semiconductors can have additional payoffs far beyond the prevention of overheating in high-speed computer chips. Just as the diodes and transistors that make up computer circuit boards are based on the optimization and control of the electrical properties of semiconductors, and the diode lasers and detectors used in fiber-optic networks are based on control of the optical properties of semiconductors, a whole new category of electronic devices may be possible by capitalizing on the combined electrical, optical, and thermal properties of semiconductors. "We already have many useful optoelectronic devices, and there is a lot of potential to explore novel opto-thermo-electronic components," Shakouri said. Such devices might be able to operate at higher speeds or tolerate greater temperature extremes than existing devices can. For example, Shakouri plans to investigate the design of high-power, high-speed semiconductor lasers for use in fiber-optic telecommunication networks and other applications. Shakouri earned a degree in engineering from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris, France, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. He was an assistant research engineer at UC Santa Barbara before joining the faculty of the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC in 1998. The Packard Fellowship program, established in 1988, is intended to provide support for unusually creative science and engineering researchers early in their careers, allowing them to pursue their research with few funding restrictions and limited paperwork requirements. Every year, the Packard Foundation invites 50 universities to nominate two young faculty members for the fellowships. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, based in Los Altos, is a private family foundation created in 1964 by David Packard and Lucile Salter Packard. The Packard Foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations in several broad program areas, including science, population, conservation, and children, family, and community. ##### Note to editors: You may contact Ali Shakouri at (831) 459-3821 or ali@cse.ucsc.edu. A photo is available from the UCSC Public Information Office. ##### Press Release Home | Search Press Releases | Press Release Archive | Services for Journalists
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