Alexandra Boltasseva, professor of electrical and computer engineering

Boltasseva and 30 other finalists will compete for the world’s largest unrestricted prizes for early career scientists — $250,000 each for three Blavatnik National Laureates in the categories of Life Sciences, Chemistry, and Physical Sciences & Engineering.

“I am very honored to be named 2018 Blavatnik finalist that brings recognition to my School and my research group,” says Boltasseva. “I am very grateful to my colleagues for their continuing support and to my students for their hard work. I want to thank the Blavatnik Foundation for recognizing the potential impact of the work on nanophotonics we do at Purdue.”

The Blavatnik National Awards recognize the previous accomplishments and the future potential of the top scientific and engineering researchers aged 42 years and younger at the top academic and research institutions in the United States. Boltasseva is a finalist in Physical Sciences & Engineering. Her bio on the Blavatnik Awards website is as follows:

”Alexandra Boltasseva (Purdue University) — A physicist and electrical engineer, Dr. Boltasseva’s research approach merges the field of optics with materials engineering and is making possible a new generation of nanophotonic technologies and all-optical devices for telecommunications, sensing, energy and information processing. Her research in plasmonics — where light is confined to the nanoscale enabling a range of new devices to be developed — has uncovered new tailorable ceramic plasmonic materials, which have improved performance over previously used materials.”

The three 2018 National Laureates will be announced on June 27, 2018. The 2018 Blavatnik National Laureates and Finalists will be honored at the Blavatnik National Awards on Monday, September 24, 2018, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Related link: Announcing the 2018 Blavatnik National Awards Finalists

Source: Prof. Alexandra Boltasseva named finalist for 2018 Blavatnik National Awards