Kono named Optical Society fellow

Junichiro Kono

Junichiro Kono has been elected a 2015 fellow by the Optical Society of America, the leading professional association for optics and photonics, the sciences of light. Kono is a professor of electrical and computer engineering, of physics and astronomy and of materials science and nanoengineering.

He is being recognized for “pioneering contributions to fundamental optical studies of nanostructures … and their optoelectric device applications.”

Kono’s lab pioneered techniques to characterize the chiralities of nanotubes in a sample, to detect signals in the terahertz range and to build photodetectors that gather light in and beyond visible wavelengths. He and his lab colleagues have captured details of how solid blocks can be triggered to create spontaneous bursts of light, a phenomenon called superfluorescence. They also created the Rice Advanced Magnet with Broadband Optics, aka RAMBO, which allows researchers to run spectroscopy-based experiments on materials in very high pulsed magnetic fields with a tabletop device.

He is also director of the Rice-based NanoJapan program that facilitates international research experiences for American undergraduate students.

Kono said he was particularly honored to receive the society honor for the International Year of Light in 2015. He will be recognized at the 2015 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics next May in San Jose, Calif.