Physicist Min Xiao Appointed to Endowed Chair in Nanotechnology

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Min Xiao

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Min Xiao, distinguished professor of physics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Twenty-First Century Chair in Nanotechnology.

Since joining the physics department in 1990, Xiao has won nearly $5 million in external funding from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office and several other agencies. In addition, he has been involved in projects totaling more than $15 million, either as a co-principal investigator or as a major participant.

The Chair was created to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scientists who will study how behavior changes at the nanoscale for materials such as living cells, semiconductors, opto-electronic materials, surface coatings and metals. Their work in turn will be supported by the resources available through the Arkansas—Oklahoma Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Arkansas.

“I am greatly honored by this appointment. The endowed chair will allow me to better pursue exciting and emerging research directions in nanoscience and nanotechnology, as well as educate students by teaching them about the new frontiers opened through this research and involving them in laboratory projects,” Xiao said.

Xiao and fellow researchers are working on projects that range from fundamental physics such as the quantum statistical properties of light to applied topics. Using optical techniques, they are currently investigating the properties of semiconductor nanostructures and new functional materials and their applications His group is also studying dynamic and statistical processes in multi-state systems.

Since 2002, Xiao and his research group have published 68 refereed journal papers in top scientific journals such as Physical Review Letters, Applied Physics Letters, Nano Letters, Optics Letters, Physical Review A, Physical Review B and IEEE Quantum Electronics.

“Because Professor Xiao is a leader in his field, he has the stature to bring together a core group of scientists who will be able to expand the enormous possibilities offered by nanotechnology,” said Donald Bobbitt, dean of Fulbright College. “The quality of his research is superb, as is his proven track record in attracting considerable support from the major federal agencies in the country.”

Xiao is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the two most predominant professional societies in physics and optics. In 2007, he will serve as the general co-chair of the Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference, one of the largest international conferences in lasers and quantum electronics.

The chair was endowed during the UA Campaign for the Twenty-First Century, which recorded $1.046 billion in gifts and pledges designated toward student and faculty endowments, academic programs, capital improvements and University Libraries when it concluded June 30, 2005.