The National Science Foundation has tentatively chosen the University of Washington as the host of one of six new science and technology centers, a designation that would place the UW firmly at the leading edge of research to develop groundbreaking information technology.

The Center for Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research likely will receive $18.7 million in NSF funding in the next five years and could receive more than twice that amount over ten years. NSF officials will work out specific details of the awards during the next several months. Larry Dalton, professor of chemistry and a leader in the field of photonics, is director and lead scientist for the new center.

Larry Dalton. Photo by Mary Levin.

Dalton is best known for developing polymers that serve as electro-optic modulators and switches, or “opto-chips.” They are microscopic devices that can translate electronic signals such as television, computer, telephone, and radar into light signals at rates up to ten times faster than the current fastest speeds. Once translated from electrical to opticalformat, the information can be transmitted at light speed using fiber optic systems.

Dalton’s advances in photonics already have led to the creation of a Bothell-based company called Lumera Corp., a subsidiary of Microvision Inc., and have brought new UW faculty working in the area of photonics. “The possibilities and applications of this cutting-edge research are endless,” says UW Provost Lee L. Huntsman. “It has the potential to change the ways we communicate as much as the technology revolution that has taken place in the last two decades.”

The NSF award is the latest in a recent series of grants to the UW for photonics research, totalling more than $15 million. Already the spate of significant awards is having a strong impact on graduate student recruitment and even appears to be drawing more undergraduates, Dalton says. The NSF award includes money to allow students from historically black colleges and universities, women’s colleges, and underrepresented groups to study in the UW program and at affiliated universities. It also provides money for educational outreach to elementary and high school students.

“If we’re right, this is where the future lies,” Dalton says. “The technology developed in this center should have a significant economic impact on the Seattle area and the nation. It will have impacts on telecommunications, defense, computing, transportation, and personal and home electronics.”

The NSF decision to finance the UW’s photonics research represents a significant change in technological focus, choosing an alternative approach to ultrafast information processing and communications rather than pursuing traditional semiconductor research.

“We won the center because nationally recognized experts sat down, compared proposals, and selected ours over excellent and high-powered competition,” Dalton said. “This is a gratifying endorsement.”

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[Summer 2002 - Table of Contents]