Dec 20 2012
Yujie Ding, professor of electrical and computer engineering and Class of 1961 Professor, has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Yujie Ding has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his contributions to high terahertz power generators.
The IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation, and it is also one of the world’s most selective organizations – IEEE selects less than 0.1 percent of members as fellows each year.
Ding, who joined the Lehigh faculty in 2002, has been honored for his contributions to high terahertz power generators. A terahertz (THz) is a unit of electromagnetic-wave frequency equivalent to one trillion hertz, with one hertz equaling one cycle per second.
Since THz radiation is non-ionizing and therefore not harmful to tissue, THz frequencies are suitable for noninvasive medical imaging. They can penetrate clothing and plastics, giving them a practical application in surveillance and the detection of concealed weapons, and they can also detect the spectral “fingerprints” of some drugs, explosives, and chemical and biological agents.
Ding has also done extensive research into light scattering, which involves exploring the possibility of using light to cool the materials through which it passes, rather than heating them. Ding collaborated with Jacob Khurgin, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University, to achieve the most favorable ratio to date between opposing types of light-scattering phenomena that occur in semiconducting materials.
They published their results recently in Laser and Photonics Review in an invited article titled “From anti-Stokes photoluminescence to resonant Raman scattering in GaN single crystals and GaN-based heterostructures.”
Ding’s other research interests include the imaging of objects through turbulent media.
In 2007, Ding was elected a fellow of the Optical Society of America, considered the most prestigious honor bestowed upon researchers in the fields of optics and photonics. He completed his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in 1990, earned his M.S.E.E. at Purdue University in 1987, and studied at Jilin University in Changchun, China for his undergraduate coursework.