Naomi Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas, has been chosen to receive a 2017 Weizmann Women and Science Award from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovet, Israel. The institute is honoring Dr. Halas “for pioneering and seminal contributions to the field of plasmonics, which have profoundly influenced modern optics both in basic understanding and in applications.”
Dr. Halas, who is also a professor of chemistry, bioengineering, physics and astronomy, and materials science and engineering at Rice, is the only scholar in the university’s history to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering for research conducted at Rice. Professor Halas has authored more than 300 papers and has been cited more than 45,000 times.
Dr. Halas will be honored and give a lecture at the Weizmann Institute on June 7. She will also receive a $25,000 research grant as apart of the award.
Professor Halas holds bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from LaSalle University in Philadelphia. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.