UCSB Heading Major Photonic Technology Research Effort

A recently awarded $110 million federal grant will help UCSB scientists boost technologies in energy efficiency and telecommunications, with the intention of creating high-tech jobs domestically.

Announced earlier this week, the Obama administration tapped the American Institute for Manufacturing Photonics to head up research in photonic technology, with UCSB leading the West Coast division of this public-private partnership. Photonics studies the use of light to transmit massive amounts of data at extremely high speeds.

In related news, UCSB materials scientist Stephen Wilson landed a $1 million Keck Foundation grant to help develop “the 21st century’s silicon” for use in superconductivity and quantum electronics, among other applications. “This project is built around ideas that have kept me up at night thinking for a very long time,” Wilson said.