Naomi Halas

Naomi Halas
Citizenship	United States
Fields	Biological engineering Electrical and Computer Engineering
Institutions	Rice University
Education	La Salle University, Bryn Mawr College
Known for	Nanophotonics
Notable awards	DoD Cancer Innovator

Naomi J. Halas is the Stanley C. Moore professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics & Astronomy, and director of Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009), National Academy of Sciences (2013) and National Academy of Engineering (2014).

She is a Fellow of five professional societies: the Optical Society, the American Physical Society, the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her current work focuses on nanoshells which her nanophotonics group is developing at Rice University. In 1987, she was part of a team that developed a "dark pulse" soliton while working for IBM.

Halas received her bachelor's degree from La Salle University in 1980. She obtained her master's degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1984 and her doctorate from Bryn Mawr in 1986.

She was working for IBM in 1987 when she developed a "dark pulse" soliton with Dieter Kroekel, Giampiero Giuliani and Daniel Grischkowsky. A "dark pulse" soliton is a standing wave that propagates through an optical fiber without spreading and which consists of a short interruption of a light pulse.

Halas was recruited to Rice University by the mid-1990s where she now heads the Nanoenginering Unit bearing her name. Her work in the 21st century focuses on noble metal nanoshells covering semiconducting or insulating cores. A nanoshell is a 100 nanometer spherical shell of metal (often gold) surrounding a core of silicon dioxide atoms.

Halas's unit is investigating the special properties of nanoshells including:

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