Engineer Hong Tang Wins Career Development Award from the NSF

Hong Tang, assistant professor of electrical and mechanical engineering, has received a CAREER award from the Faculty Early Career Development Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The NSF CAREER Award is one of the highest honors for young faculty members, recognizing and supporting the early career activities of teacher/

scholars. With this award, the NSF has designated Tang as a young faculty member to watch - one of those most likely to become an academic leader of the future.

Tang’s award-winning project, “Silicon Optomechanics,” will support his work in developing extremely miniaturized optical and mechanical devices on a silicon platform. He will receive $400,000 over five years for his research.

His proposal is an extension of recent work applying light force on silicon chips which was published in Nature in November 2008 and garnered international recognition in numerous prestigious publications and web media.

According to Tang, while silicon is the mainstream material for building functional nanoscale devices, harnessing and controlling optical force on a chip will lead to the convergence of two important fields: nanophotonics and nanomechanics. It will also bring transformative advances in both photonics and nanoelectromechanical systems, he contends.

Tang’s proposal describes a new direction that combines the unique optical and mechanical function of silicon to build a new optomechanical platform — “silicon optomechanics.” The educational portion of his proposal addresses curriculum development in nanotechnology and creation of hands-on lab modules.

Tang joined Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science in October 2006 after receiving his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.