Naomi J. Halas

Short CV

Prof. Naomi J. Halas received her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from La Salle University in Philadelphia and her PhD in Physics from Bryn Mawr College. She was a graduate fellow at IBM Yorktown for her PhD research and a postdoctoral fellow at AT&T Bell Laboratories prior to her professorship at Rice. She pursues fundamental studies and applications of nanophotonics ranging from biomedicine to water treatment. She is author of more than 350 refereed publications, has more than 20 issued patents, and has presented more than 600 invited talks. She has co-founded two companies based on her research: Nanospectra Biosciences (Photothermal Cancer Therapy, in clinical trials) and Syzygy Plasmonics (Low-temperature Photocatalysis for sustainable fuels). She is Fellow of the APS, OSA, SPIE, IEEE, MRS, and the National Academy of Inventors (U. S.). Halas has been elected to the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering (U. S.), the Royal Society of Chemistry (U. K.), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Selected Awards

• 2022, Eni Energy Transition Award
• 2019, ACS Nano Lectureship Award
• 2019, Spiers Memorial Award, Royal Society of Chemistry
• 2019, ACS Award in Colloid Chemistry
• 2018, Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society
• 2017, Women & Science Award, Weizmann Institute
• 2017, Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics
• 2016, C. N. Yang Professorship, Hong Kong University
• 2015, R. W. Wood Prize, Optical Society of America
• 2014, SPIE Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award
• 2014, Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids of the American Physical Society

Research Interests

Plasmonics, nanophotonics, sustainability, nanobiomedicine

Selected Publications

• 2020, Linan Zhou, John Mark P. Martirez, Chao Zhang, Dayne F. Swearer, Shu Tian, Hossein Robatjazi, Luke Henderson, Emily A. Carter, Peter Nordlander, and Naomi J. Halas, “Light-driven methane dry reforming with single atomic site antenna-reactor plasmonic photocatalysts”, Nature Energy 5, 61-70.
• 2020,  Alessandro Alabastri, Pratiksha D. Dongare, Oara Neumann, Jordin Metz, Ifeoluwa Adebiyi, Peter Nordlander, and Naomi J. Halas, “Resonant Energy Transfer for Solar Desalination Devices”, Energy and Environmental Science Energy & Environmental Science 13, 968 – 976.
• 2019, Ardeshir R. Rastinehad, Harry Anastos, Ethan Wajswol, Jared S. Winoker, John P. Sfakianos, Sai K Doppalapudi, Michael R. Carrick, Cynthia J. Knauer, Bachir Taouli, Sara C. Lewis, Ashutosh K. Tewari, Jon A. Schwartz, Steven E. Canfield, Arvin K. George, Jennifer L. West, Naomi J. Halas “Gold Nanoshell-Localized Photothermal Ablation of Prostate Tumors in a Clinical Pilot Device Study”, PNAS 116, 18590-18596.
• 2018, Linan Zhou, Dayne F. Swearer, Chao Zhang, Hossein Robatjazi, Hangqi Zhao, Luke Henderson, Liangliang Dong, Phillip Christopher, Emily A. Carter, Peter Nordlander, and Naomi J. Halas, “Quantifying Hot carrier and Thermal Contributions in Plasmonic Photocatalysis”, Science 362, 69–72.
• 2017, Pratiksha D. Dongare, Alessandro Alabastri, Seth Pedersen, Katherine R. Zodrow, Nathaniel J. Hogan, Oara Neumann, Jinjian Wu, Tianxiao Wang, Akshay Deshmukh, Menachem Elimelech, ,Qilin Li, Peter Nordlander, and Naomi J. Halas, Nanophotonics-enabled Solar Membrane Distillation (NESMD) for Off-grid Water Purification, PNAS 114, 6936-6941.
• 2016, Dayne F. Swearer, Hangqi Zhao, Linan Zhou, Chao Zhang, Hossein Robatjazi, John P. Mark Martirez, Caroline M. Krauter, Sadegh Yazdi, Michael J. McClain, Emilie Ringe, Emily A. Carter, Peter Nordlander, and Naomi J. Halas, “Heterometallic Antenna-Reactor Complexes for Photocatalysis”, PNAS 113, 8916–8920.
• 2013, Oara Neumann, Alexander S. Urban, Jared Day, Surbhi Lal, Peter Nordlander, and N. J. Halas, “Solar Vapor Generation enabled by nanoparticles”, ACS Nano 7, 42-49.
• 2012, Shaunak Mukherjee, Florian Libisch, Nicholas Large, Oara Neumann, Lisa V. Brown, Jin Cheng, Britt Lassiter, Emily A. Carter, Peter Nordlander, and Naomi J. Halas, “Hot electrons do the impossible: Plasmon-induced Dissocation of H2 on Au”, Nano Letters 13, 240-247.
• 2011, M. W. Knight, H. Sobhani, P. Nordlander, and N. J. Halas, “Photodetection with active optical antennas”, Science 332, 702-4.
• 2010, Jonathan A. Fan, Kui Bao, Jiming Bao, Rizia Bardhan, Naomi J. Halas, Vinothan N. Manoharan, Gennady Shvets, Peter Nordlander, and Federico Capasso, “Fano Interference in Self-Assembled Plasmonic Nanoparticle Clusters”, Science 328, 1135-8.
• 2003, L. R. Hirsch, R. J. Stafford, J. A. Bankson, S. R. Sershen, R. E. Price, J. D. Hazle, N. J. Halas, and J. L. West, “Nanoshell-Mediated Near Infrared Thermal Therapy of Tumors Under MR Guidance”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100,13549-13554.