National Academy of Inventors announces Steven R.J. Brueck is among worldwide cohort of NAI Fellows for 2015

January 8, 2016 - Sharon Steely

NAI Fellows announced in December 2015

Steven R. J. Brueck, PhD

UNM's Distinguished Professors Steven R. J. Brueck and C. Jeffrey Brinker were among 168 distinguished innovators elevated to NAI Fellow status in December, 2015.

Election and induction into NAI Fellow Program is considered a high professional distinction among academic inventors who have demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.

Dr. Brueck is a distinguished professor & professor emeritus in the Departments of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Physics & Astronomy and the director emeritus of the UNM Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM).

Drs. Brueck and Brinker were nominated by the STC.UNM Board of Directors for this national honor.

National Academy of Inventors Fellow

“Dr. Brueck and Dr. Brinker have received the STC 2010 and 2015 Innovation Fellow Award, respectively, as top innovators at UNM for achievements in developing many new technologies and receiving a large number of patents that have generated significant commercialization activities from licenses and the formation of new companies. The social and economic impact of Dr. Brueck and Dr. Brinker’s technologies in the marketplace reach far beyond New Mexico,” stated STC Board Chair Sandra Begay-Campbell.

Brueck is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director Emeritus of CHTM. Brueck has made significant contributions to nonlinear optics, nanoscale lithography, semiconductor lasers, infrared detectors, nanophotonics and nanofluidics. He received the UNM Presidential Award of Distinction in 2013. Brueck has published over 500 technical papers and has served as Associate Editor of Optics Letters, as Editor of the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, and as Founding Editor of the IEEE Journal in Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. At press time, he holds 61 US patents, of which 63 licenses and options have been exercised by 24 companies. Brueck is a fellow of OSA, IEEE, and AAAS.

More information is found in the story published in the UNM Newsroom on December 15, 2015:

Brueck’s research in nanotechnologies spans the fields of semiconductors, biotechnology, lighting, and materials science. His principal research focus has been on the process of nanolithography, creating patterns that approach molecular scales. He is a pre-eminent expert in the extension of optical lithography, still the only technology used by the semiconductor industry.  His lithographic technologies are able to pattern smaller and smaller features on silicon wafers, leading to faster, smaller, lighter and more mobile applications.

In 2006, he and his team created the then smallest pattern on record at 25 nanometers (1 nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter). At the time, the electronics industry manufactured at the 90 nanometer level. Brueck is currently working on extending optical lithography to the 15-nanometer, half-pitch industry node and beyond using various nonlinear frequency multiplication schemes. This process has led to the development of several generations of semiconductor chips.

Learn more about the honor for both professors at the STC.UNM website.

Read the announcement of the 2015 NAI Fellows press release by the National Academy of Inventors.

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