ECE Graduate Soham Saha receives the 2021 Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award
Soham Saha has been awarded the 2021 Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award for his work on all-optical switching. Saha earned his PhD in Fall 2021 from the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the field of nanophotonics.
Saha’s submission was titled “Engineering the Optical Properties and Temporal Responses of Conducting Oxides and Nitrides for Optically Switchable Metasurfaces”. He is now studying extreme light behavior in metals and oxides with collaborators in Technion, Israel, and Ottawa, Canada.
At Purdue, Saha was co-advised by ECE Professors Vladimir M. Shalaev, Bob and Anne Burnett Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Alexandra Boltasseva, Ron and Dotty Garvin Tonjes Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In his PhD research, Saha worked on developing ultrafast optical switches with new materials, where extreme light-interactions enable nonlinear phenomena such as the picosecond signal-addition and high harmonic generation. Saha's publications have appeared in journals such as ACS Photonics, Advanced Functional Materials, Materials Today, and Nature Communications.
Saha’s research work has earned him several awards and recognitions, such as the Society of Vacuum Coaters Foundation Scholarship in 2017, and the SPIE Education Scholarship in 2019 for his potential contribution to the field of Optics and Photonics. He also won the Outstanding Graduate Researcher Award in 2021 at Purdue University, and attended the 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Lindau Nobel Meetings, networking with Nobel Laureates in physics.
Saha's extracurricular activities included being the SPIE student chapter president at Purdue and founder of the IEEE Photonics Society Student chapter. In 2018, he organized the IONS Midwest Conference, attended by 200 participants from 5 different countries. He initiated the Undergraduate Research in Optics program, mentoring dozens of undergraduate students in research, and the Women in Optics and Nanoscience Symposium, highlighting trailblazing women in science.
Saha plans on pursuing an academic career in optics, unlocking new physical phenomena with robust materials, and developing devices for high-impact applications spanning communications, sensing, imaging, and material science.
The Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation, part of the Feinberg Graduate School at Weizmann Institute of Science, awards scientific prizes for outstanding work in selected fields in the engineering sciences, medicine, and the natural sciences. It rewards research characterized by its high potential for practical application and by the special significance attached to its aftermath. Every year, partner universities in Europe, North America, and Asia evaluate the research work of their graduating doctorate students and propose the best for prizing.
Source: ECE Graduate Soham Saha receives the 2021 Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award