A much-decorated UCF optics researcher who specializes in liquid crystal displays and is among the university’s top patent generators is being recognized again by the nation’s premier optics society.
Shin-Tson Wu, Pegasus professor of optics, has been selected to receive the Esther Hoffman Beller Medal from The Optical Society (OSA) for his broad and significant impact to academia and industry in photonics education.
Wu and his Liquid Crystal Displays lab team conduct the research that is leading to increasingly lifelike flat-screen displays.
He has received nearly 80 U.S. patents for his work, both at UCF and at a research lab in California, and has been instrumental in the development of displays that are brighter, more energy efficient and both bigger and smaller than ever.
In 2010 Wu received the OSA’s Joseph Fraunhofer Award and Robert M. Burley Prize, in 2011 he received the Slottow-Owake Prize from the Society of Information Display (SID), and in 2008 he received G.G. Stokes award from the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) and the Jan Rajchman prize from the SID.
“Dr. Wu is an extraordinary example of the influence one exceptional faculty members can have on an industry,” said Bahaa Saleh, dean of UCF’s College of Optics & Photonics.
Saleh, who is also a recipient of the Esther Hoffman Beller Medal, said the international recognition such awards generate help the college continue to attract highly regarded faculty and talented students, which in turn generates funding and innovative technology. MJ Soileau, the founding director of the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers and current vice president for Research & Commercialization, has also received the honor.
Wu will receive the award at the OSA’s annual meeting in Tucson, AZ in October.