Naomi Halas

Naomi Halas is the Stanley C. Moore professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor in Chemistry at Rice University. Her current work focuses on nanoshells which her nanophotonics group is developing at Rice University. In 1987, she was part of a team that developed a "dark pulse" soliton while working for IBM.

Biography

Early career

Halas received her Bachelor's degree from La Salle University in 1980. She obtained her Masters degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1984 and her doctorate from Bryn Mawr in 1986.

She was working for IBM in 1987 when she developed a "dark pulse" soliton with Dieter Kroekel, Giampiero Giuliani and Daniel Grischkowsky. A "dark pulse" soliton is a standing wave that propagates through an optical fiber without spreading and which consists of a short interruption of a light pulse.

Nanoshells

Halas was recruited to Rice University by the mid-1990s where she now heads the Nanoenginering Unit bearing her name. Her work in the 21st century focuses on noble metal nanoshells covering semiconducting or insulating cores. A nanoshell is a 100 nanometer spherical shell of metal (often gold) surrounding a core of silicon dioxide atoms.

Halas's unit is investigating the special properties of nanoshells including:

• a potential treatment for cancer similar to chemotherapy but without the toxic side-effects;
• inexpensive, quick analysis of samples as small as a single molecule.

Halas has received a "Cancer Innovator" from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs of the US Department of Defence. The Department of Defence granted Halas and Dr. Jennifer West $3 million to conduct research into the potential of this treatment. Nanotechnology Now awarded Halas and West the award for Best Discovery of 2003.

References

• Naomi Halas Rice webpage

• CNN biography and interview with Naomi Halas, June 2007
• An SPIE video interview with Naomi Halas about metallic nanoparticles
• Nanotechnology Now article of Best Discovery Award
• Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans eds History of Science and Technology Houghton Mifflin, 2004. 1987 entry
• Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, Sweating the Small Stuff: Nanotechnology and Texas' Economic Future, 2003
• PBS NOVA ScienceNow Profile - a free 10 minute video clip

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