By Beth Treffeisen
Yongmin Liu, Ph.D., a Fenway resident and assistant professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University’s College of Engineering, has been named a 2017 SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing Rising Researcher by the International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE).
“I’m really excited about this award,” said Liu. “It’s a prestigious award for me. All of the candidates are from all over the world and only 10 people are elected.”
The award is designed to highlight the achievements of professionals who are early in their career. The Rising Researchers program distinguishes ten professionals who are conducting notable work in project development or research in the defense, commercial and scientific sensing, imaging, optics or other related fields.
He has lived in the Fenway area for four years and taught at Northeastern University for close to five.
Dr. Liu’s research is focused on nano optics, nanoscale materials and engineering, plasmonics, metamaterials, nano optomechanics, as well as optical imaging and sensing.
His work in the emerging field of electromagnetic metamaterials offers a new route to design material properties at will. They are different from materials that occur naturally. His research focuses on how these new materials can create new applications such as in the bio medical field.
He will be attending the award ceremony this upcoming April during SPIE conference in California. Dr. Liu is looking forward to meeting the different people selected for this award to learn more about the different research going on.
Dr. Liu also leads the Research Group of Professor Yongmin Liu, the Northeastern research lab that is committed to an interdisciplinary form of research that works to bridge the differences between engineering, optics, applied physics and nanoscience.
Professor Liu joined Northeastern University as an Assistant Professor in 2012, with a joint appointment in the Departments of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering.
He received his Ph.D. degree in Applied Science and Technology from the University of California at Berkeley in 2009, and both his M.S. and B.S. degree in Physics from Nanjing University (Nanjing, China) in 2003 and 2000 respectively.
Professor Liu has authored and co-authored over 50 journal papers and his research findings were widely reported by international media including BBC News, CNN, TIME, New York Times and more.
Liu said, “It’s a great honor for me.”