Narayan receives 2011 RJ Reynolds Award

Dr. Jagdish “Jay” Narayan, the John C.C. Fan Family Distinguished Chair Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures at North Carolina State University, has been selected as the 27th recipient of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Extension. Narayan delivered his lecture Wednesday, Nov. 2 at the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center on NC State’s Centennial Campus. Narayan’s lecture was entitled “Frontiers in Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology and Impact on Society.”

The award was established in 1981 within the College of Engineering to honor a member of the engineering faculty who has demonstrated superiority in several areas of activity that relate to the University’s three-fold mission of teaching, research and extension. The annual award is supported by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company through the NC State Engineering Foundation to bring recognition to scientific and educational achievements in fields of engineering. The recipient is given a $25,000 prize distributed over five years.

Narayan, a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is an internationally recognized authority in the field of materials science and engineering. His original research has proven pivotal to the understanding of basic phenomena in metals, ceramics and electronic materials and processing. He has published more than 500 papers in archival journals and an equal number in conference proceedings. He has also received 35 patents and has more than 12,500 citations and an h-index of 54.

Narayan is being cited for his pioneering research in novel materials and contributions in materials science, mentoring a large number of highly successful graduate students and postdocs, and serving the science and engineering community through professional societies and the National Science Foundation. He has made groundbreaking contributions in thin film science and technology through his discoveries of domain matching epitaxy, novel thin film heterostructures integrated with silicon, three-dimensional epitaxial self-assembled structures, quantum-well nanostructuring leading to Nano-Pocket LED structures, fundamentals of ion-solid and laser-solid interactions, laser annealing, rapid thermal processing, pulsed laser deposition, and formation of novel supersaturated semiconductor alloys and nanostructured materials for next-generation devices and systems. His research on self-assembly of three-dimensional nanostructures was hailed as a “Breakthrough of the Year” by NSF in 2004.

Narayan pioneered the concept of solute trapping in semiconductors by his discoveries of laser annealing in the late 1970s and the formation of supersaturated semiconductor alloys for which he received the 1983 IR-100. Narayan received the 2011 Acta Materialia Gold Medal for these pioneering contributions and his leadership in materials science worldwide.  The concept of solute trapping, which was introduced by Dr. John Cahn, a professor at MIT, in the early 1970s, resulted in the 2011 Kyoto Prize for Cahn and the 2011 Nobel Prize for Dr. Dan Shechtman for his work on quasicrystals formed due to solute trapping in aluminum-manganese alloys.

Narayan’s other honors and awards include the 2011 MRS Forum and 2011 MS&T International Conference in his honor, the 2011 Lee Hsun Lecture Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the ASM Gold Medal, the Edward DeMille Campbell Lecture and Prize, the US DOE Sustained Research Award, three IR-100 Awards, the IIT/K Distinguished Alumnus Award, and recognition as an inaugural MRS Fellow, a Life Member and Fellow of TMS, a Life Member and Fellow of APS, an AAAS Fellow, an Honorary Member of MRS-I, a Fellow of the Bohmische Physical Society, and a Life Member and Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India).

His groundbreaking research has been closely related to the work done at Massachusetts-based Kopin Corp., a company best known for its CyberDisplay technology found in many digital cameras and camcorders. Narayan holds 10 patents with Kopin and KoBrite Corp., the company’s joint venture that has been important to the success of CyberDisplay and the company’s solid-state lighting and devices. Narayan’s development of NanoPockets, an invention that holds promise for improving the efficiency of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), is among these contributions.  The work has helped reduce the cost of LEDs, making solid-state lighting more competitive with conventional light sources. Narayan’s endowed professorship is named after Kopin’s co-founder, president and chief executive officer, Dr. John C. C. Fan.

Narayan has developed seven graduate courses during his 28 years at NC State, two of which he teaches through Engineering Online for students at NC State and outside in industry. These courses are very popular among practicing engineers in industry who need to update their skills and finish their advanced degrees online. In addition, under Narayan’s leadership, the College is launching the Master of Nanoengineering program through NC State’s Engineering Online program, one of the largest engineering distance education programs in the nation. The interdisciplinary program will involve faculty members from a variety of engineering departments, including biomedical, industrial and materials science.

Narayan has graduated more than 60 PhD students and mentored more than 40 postdocs who are employed in leading universities, national labs and industry. Many of these students have received top honors such as NSF CAREER Awards; IBM Faculty Awards; MRS, ASM and TMS Awards; and various Best Paper Awards. One of Narayan’s students (an associate professor at Texas A&M) received a Presidential PECASE Award last year, the only one awarded in the field of advanced materials in the country.

Narayan received his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, in 1969 and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1970 and 1971, respectively, all in materials science and engineering.