Deji Akinwande
Deji Akinwande is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with courtesy affiliation with Materials Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2016 from Barack Obama. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is a Nigerian-American.
Deji Akinwande | |
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Akinwande shakes hands with President Barack Obama, while receiving the PECASE in 2016 | |
Alma mater | Stanford University Case Western Reserve University |
Known for | 2D materials, flexible and wearable nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, STEM education |
Awards | PECASE, given in 2016 Fellow of American Physical Society |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of Texas at Austin |
Thesis | Carbon nanotubes: device physics, RF circuits, surface science and nanotechnology (2009) |
Website | https://nano.mer.utexas.edu/ |
Early life and education
Akinwande was born in Washington, DC and moved to Nigeria in his early years.[1] He grew up in Ikeja with his parents.[1] His father was the financial controller of Guardian News and his mother worked at the Ministry of Education. He attended Federal Government College, Idoani and became interested in science and engineering.[1] He returned to America in 1994, starting at Cuyahoga community college and eventually transferring to Case Western Reserve University to study electrical engineering and applied physics.[1] During his master's degree he pioneered the design of near-field microwave tips for non-destructive imaging.[2] He was accepted to Stanford University as a graduate student, working on the electronic properties of carbon-based materials.[1] He was selected as an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow during his PhD.[1] He was also selected as a DARE (Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence) Fellow in 2008.[3] He completed his PhD in 2009.[4] He joined University of Texas at Austin in 2010 as an Assistant Professor in January 2010, and was awarded research grants from several agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Army Research Office (ARO), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), DARPA, and Office of Naval Research, the latter focusing on high-frequency flexible 2D electronics.[5]
Research and career
Akinwande collaborated with Aixtron on wafer-scale growth of graphene, characterization and integration [6] The collaboration demonstrated scalable growth of polycrystalline graphene using chemical vapour deposition, creating the first 300 mm wafers.[7][8] In 2011 he published the first textbook on Carbon Nanotube and Graphene Device Physics with Prof. Philip Wong of Stanford University.[9] He was made a senior member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2013.[2] He has made several advances in two dimensional graphene electronics.[10] In 2015 he demonstrated the first two dimensional silicene transistor.[11] Akinwande in collaboration with Alessandro Molle's group at CNR, Italy, achieved this by evaporating silicon onto a crystal of silver, monitoring the growth in real-time using scanning tunnelling microscopy.[11][12] This research breakthrough was selected as one of the top science stories of 2015 by Discover magazine.[13] The silicene work is the most cited Nature Nanotechnology publication of similar age.
He was a finalist for the University of Texas at Austin 'UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching' Award for several years, the highest teaching recognition in Texas.[14] He went on to demonstrate the thinnest most transparent electronic tattoo sensors made from graphene in 2017, which were less than 500 nm thick and 85% optically transparent. This research was in collaboration with Nanshu Lu's group.[15] The tattoos can be laminated onto human skin like a temporary tattoo, but could measure electrocardiography, electroencephalography, temperature and hydration.[15] He demonstrated the first atomristor by investigating nonvolatile resistance switching using a 2D atomic sheet of molybdenum disulfide.[16] The devices can be as thin as 1.5 nm and have applications in 5G smartphones as zero-static power radio-frequency switches, internet of things and artificial intelligence circuits.[17] The discovery of memory in these systems is expected to be universal amongst 2D materials.[18]
He is an editor of IEEE Electron Devices Letters and the Nature journal npj 2D Materials and Applications.[19][20] He has given about a dozen plenary and keynote talks including the plenary talk at the 2017 SPIE annual meeting Optics & Photonics, where he discussed the progress, opportunities and challenges of 2D electronic devices.[21] He was made an American Physical Society Fellow in 2017 and a Fulbright Fellow in 2018.[22][23] He will visit the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 2019.[24] Two of his former postdoctoral scholars are now professors, Dr. Shideh Kabiri at Queen's University in Canada, and Dr. Li Tao at Southeast University in Nanjing.
He has chaired several major conferences and program committees in nanoelectronics/nanotechnology such as:
- Gordon Research Conference on 2D materials
- Device Research Conference
- the International Electron Devices Meeting NDT Sub-committee
Academic posts
- Theodore von Kármán Fellow and visiting professor, RWTH Aachen University, 2017–present
- Visiting professor, Cambridge University Engineering Department and Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, 2016
- Visiting scholar, CNR, Agrate Brianza, Italy, 2016
Publications and patents
- He has authored over 110 journal publications which have been cited about 8000 times
- He has published 1 textbook and 3 book chapters
- He has delivered about a dozen plenary and keynote talks
- He has given more than 110 invited talks and seminars at conferences, universities and institutions
- He has 6 patents awarded or pending covering inventions in electronics and nanotechnology
Honors and awards
- 2018 Fulbright Specialist Fellow
- 2017 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Friedrich Bessel Research Award[25][26]
- 2016 Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Inventor Fellow Award[27]
- 2016 U.S. Presidential (PECASE) Award from President Obama[28]
- 2015 IEEE Nanotechnology Early Career Award[29]
- 2013 Jack Kilby Endowed Faculty Fellowship[30]
- 2012 IEEE Geim and Novoselov Graphene Prize 2012[31]
- 2012 National Science Foundation CAREER Award[32]
- 2012 Defense Threat Reduction Agency Young Investigator Award[33]
- 2012 3M Nontenured Faculty Award[30]
- 2011 Army Research Office Young Investigator Award[30]
- 2010 Office of Naval Research Grant Award[5][30]
References
- "Deji Akinwande". ZODML. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Deji Akinwande | IEEE Electron Devices Society". eds.ieee.org. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- University, Stanford (2018-11-01). "Sowing seeds of diversity in academia with PhD fellowships". Stanford News. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "People and Ideas | Interview with Deji Akinwande". GRAD | LOGIC. 2016-04-12. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Prof. Akinwande Awarded Grant from ONR". Texas ECE | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The University of Texas at Austin. 2013-05-31. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "AIXTRON SE Investor Relations − An Investment with a Future :: AIXTRON". aixtron.com. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "300mm wafer-scale graphene demonstrated | Akinwande Nano Research Group". nano.mer.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- Rahimi, Somayyeh; Tao, Li; Chowdhury, Sk. Fahad; Park, Saungeun; Jouvray, Alex; Buttress, Simon; Rupesinghe, Nalin; Teo, Ken; Akinwande, Deji (2014-09-15). "Toward 300 mm Wafer-Scalable High-Performance Polycrystalline Chemical Vapor Deposited Graphene Transistors". ACS Nano. 8 (10): 10471–10479. doi:10.1021/nn5038493. ISSN 1936-0851. PMID 25198884.
- Wong, H.-S. Philip; Akinwande, Deji (2010), Carbon Nanotube and Graphene Device Physics, Cambridge University Press, pp. 47–72, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511778124.004, ISBN 9780511778124
- Akinwande, Deji; Petrone, Nicholas; Hone, James (December 2014). "Two-dimensional flexible nanoelectronics". Nature Communications. 5 (1): 5678. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.5678A. doi:10.1038/ncomms6678. ISSN 2041-1723. PMID 25517105.
- Tao, Li; Cinquanta, Eugenio; Chiappe, Daniele; Grazianetti, Carlo; Fanciulli, Marco; Dubey, Madan; Molle, Alessandro; Akinwande, Deji (2015-02-02). "Silicene field-effect transistors operating at room temperature". Nature Nanotechnology. 10 (3): 227–231. Bibcode:2015NatNa..10..227T. doi:10.1038/nnano.2014.325. ISSN 1748-3387. PMID 25643256. S2CID 5144735.
- Peplow, Mark (2015-02-02). "Graphene's cousin silicene makes transistor debut". Nature. 518 (7537): 17–18. Bibcode:2015Natur.518...17P. doi:10.1038/518017a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 25652975.
- "Prof. Akinwande's Silicene Transistor Named Discover Top 100 Story of 2015". Texas ECE | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The University of Texas at Austin. 2015-12-18. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Deji Akinwande - World Class Researcher; Creating Solutions in Science and Technology". Konnect Africa. 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- Kabiri Ameri, Shideh; Ho, Rebecca; Jang, Hongwoo; Tao, Li; Wang, Youhua; Wang, Liu; Schnyer, David M.; Akinwande, Deji; Lu, Nanshu (2017-07-27). "Graphene Electronic Tattoo Sensors". ACS Nano. 11 (8): 7634–7641. doi:10.1021/acsnano.7b02182. ISSN 1936-0851. PMID 28719739. S2CID 19751409.
- Ge, Ruijing; Wu, Xiaohan; Kim, Myungsoo; Shi, Jianping; Sonde, Sushant; Tao, Li; Zhang, Yanfeng; Lee, Jack C.; Akinwande, Deji (2017-12-19). "Atomristor: Nonvolatile Resistance Switching in Atomic Sheets of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides". Nano Letters. 18 (1): 434–441. Bibcode:2018NanoL..18..434G. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04342. ISSN 1530-6984. PMID 29236504.
- Wunderlich, Rebecca. "Ultra-Thin Memory Storage Device Paves Way for More Powerful Computing - Cockrell School of Engineering". engr.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- Bourzac, Katherine. "Two-dimensional materials could enable low-power telecommunications | January 15, 2018 Issue - Vol. 96 Issue 3 | Chemical & Engineering News". cen.acs.org. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "EDL Editor-in-Chief and Editors | IEEE Electron Devices Society". eds.ieee.org. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "About the Editor | npj 2D Materials and Applications". nature.com. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "2D Flexible and Emerging Devices and Applications | SPIE Homepage: SPIE". spie.org. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Akinwande-APS-2017". Texas ECE | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The University of Texas at Austin. 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Prof. Deji Akinwande Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society". Texas ECE | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The University of Texas at Austin. 2017-10-19. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "2018-2019 American Grantees | Polsko-Amerykańska Komisja Fulbrighta". Polsko-Amerykańska Komisja Fulbrighta. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Positive selection decisions since March 2013: Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award". humboldt-foundation.de. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Prof. Deji Akinwande Receives Friedrich Bessel Research Award". Texas ECE | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The University of Texas at Austin. 2017-05-01. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Announces Inaugural Moore Inventor Fellows". VentureBeat. 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Prof. Deji Akinwande Named Recipient of Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers". Texas ECE | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The University of Texas at Austin. 2016-02-18. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "2015 NTC Award Winners Announced - IEEE Nanotechnology Council". sites.ieee.org. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Akinwande Nano Research Group". nano.mer.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Prof. Deji Akinwande Awarded Geim and Novoselov Graphene Prize". Texas ECE | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The University of Texas at Austin. 2013-05-31. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "NSF Award Search: Award#1150034 - CAREER: Integrated Si-CMOS and Graphene Heterogeneous Nanoelectronics". nsf.gov. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- "Profs. Sujay Sanghavi and Deji Akinwande Receive Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Young Investigator Awards". Texas ECE | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The University of Texas at Austin. 2013-05-31. Retrieved 2018-11-03.