EECS faculty member and principal investigator in the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) Tomas Palacios has been selected by the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors, ISCS, committee to win the ISCS Young Scientist Award. He is cited for contributions to the development of mm-wave GaN high electron mobility transistors and their integration with silicon electronics.
Tomas Palacios joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of MIT in September of 2006 as an Assistant Professor and a member of the Microsystems Technology Laboratory. He was a Telecommunication Engineer at the Polytechnic University of Madrid from 2001 and received his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of California - Santa Barbara in 2004 and 2006, respectively.
In 1997, Palacios joined the Institute for Systems based on Optoelectronics and Microtechnology (ISOM) in Spain. There, he worked on technology research, ultraviolet photodetectors, surface acoustic wave filters and high electron mobility transistors. In 2000, he worked in the Microelectronics Group of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN, Geneva) where he collaborated in the design of new Si transistors for radiation-hard and low noise electronics. In 2002, he joined Prof. Mishra's group at UCSB where he developed new transistors based on nitrides for mm-wave applications and he established the state of the art in high frequency and high power applications.
Palacios' research interests include the design, processing and characterization of new transistors based on wide bandgap semiconductors for power amplification and digital applications beyond 100 GHz. He is also very interested in the development of new concepts for biosensors and bioactuators as well as in the use of the unique properties of nitrides for power generation and conversion. When not at MIT, Palacios enjoys reading, listening to classical music, hiking and attending plays and concerts.
In the last few years, Palacios has received multiple awards like the Young Researcher Award at the 6th International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors, the Best Student Paper Award at the 36th Device Research Conference, the Lancaster Dissertation award, the European Prize Salva i Campillo to the "most promising European Newcomer to Engineering", etc. He is also author or coauthor of more than 70 scientific papers in international journals and conferences, one book chapter and several invited talks and patents.
Recently Palacios was awarded the DARPA Young Faculty Award (March 2008), the Office of Naval Research' Young Investigator Award (March 2009) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award (July 2009).
The ISCS Young Scientist Award was initiated in 1986, and the recipients have been selected by the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors Award Committee for technical achievements in the field of compound semiconductors made by a scientist under the age of forty.
Palacios received the ISCS award June 3, 2010 at the opening session of the ISCS 2010 in Kagawa, Japan.