PROFESSOR MOOL GUPTA NAMED IEEE FELLOW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 2, 2019
NIA Release: 2020-02
Piscataway, New Jersey — Mool Gupta, University of Virginia Langley Distinguished Professor at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), has been named an IEEE Fellow, effective Jan. 1, 2020. He is being recognized for contributions to laser material interactions. Gupta’s research at NIA is primarily concerned with solar energy, high power laser applications and optical sensors, and photonic devices. Professor Gupta is Founding Director of NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Lasers and Plasmas at the University of Virginia. There, he and his students conduct sponsored research in high-power laser applications, as well as in laser-related surface processing and cladding, annealing, doping, crystallization, infrared device fabrication and laser thin film transfer.
The IEEE Board of Directors confers the IEEE Grade of Fellow upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of 1% of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.
“Dr. Gupta has been a Langley Distinguished Professor here at NIA for over a decade.” said Dr. Douglas Stanley, President and Executive Director of NIA. “His innovative research and high-quality students have been a major asset for NIA, UVA and NASA. We are all very proud and happy for him for receiving this great honor!”
With more than 200 research publications and 28 patents to his credit, Professor Gupta has served as principal investigator for numerous research projects for organizations including NASA, DARPA, AFOSR, Navy, DOE and NSF. In 2011, he received one of the first NSF Innovation Corps awards for his project, “Replication of Laser-Generated Surface Textures for Anti-Icing and Sunlight-Trapping Applications.” The project involved laser micro-texturing of surfaces and low-cost replication to provide superhydrophobic properties similar to the lotus effect. More recently, he led a team of five UVA students to the finalist level of the 2018 NASA BIG idea challenge with a project, “Photovoltaic Balloon for Autonomous Energy Generation on Mars.”
In 2012 he served as Chair of the National Research Council Panel on Materials, Structures, Manufacturing, and Thermal Management to generate NASA Technology Roadmap and Priorities. He was Materials Research Society Short Course Instructor for Optoelectronic Materials, Processes and Devices course for over six years, Adjunct Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University for over eight years, Conference Chair for 1996 SPIE Conference on Nonlinear Frequency Conversion and was inducted in Kodak’s Inventor’s Gallery. He is Editor-in-Chief for CRC Handbook of Photonics first and 2nd edition.
Professor Gupta’s career experience also includes serving as Director of the Applied Research Center, Program Director for Materials Science and Engineering, and as a Research Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Old Dominion University. He also worked at the Research Laboratories of Eastman Kodak Company for 17 years as a Senior Scientist and Group Leader. Before joining Kodak, Professor Gupta was Senior Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech, in Pasadena, California. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Washington State University, was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, and a Senior Research Fellow at California Institute of Technology.
“I am very fortunate to be a current Fellow of the Optical Society of America and now to be selected as a Fellow of IEEE Society, which is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity,” remarked Professor Gupta.
The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 400,000 plus members in 160 countries, the association is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes 30% of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields and has developed more than 1300 active industry standards. The association also sponsors or co-sponsors nearly 1700 international technical conferences each year. To learn more about IEEE or the IEEE Fellow Program, please visit www.ieee.org.
About the National Institute of Aerospace:
The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) is an independent nonprofit research, graduate education, and outreach institute located in Hampton, Virginia. NIA is a national leader in aerospace and aviation research and collaborates with NASA, the FAA, and other government agencies and laboratories, universities, and industry to conduct research and technology development in space exploration, aeronautics and science.
For more information about the National Institute of Aerospace visit: www.NIAnet.org
Contact:
Dr. Douglas Stanley
National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, Virginia
757-325-6811
stanley@nianet.org