Boon S. Ooi

Principal Investigator

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, KAUST
Al-Khawarizmi Distinguished Professor
Future Chips Constellation Chair Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), USA
Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors (NAI) | Fellow of IEEE | Fellow of Optica | Fellow of SPIE | Fellow of the Institute of Physics (London) | Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)

Research Interests: Optoelectronics, Photonics

Boon.Ooi@kaust.edu.sa | Personal Website

Introduction

Boon S. Ooi is the Future Chips Constellation Chair Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), USA. He also holds the position of Al-Khawarizmi Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at KAUST, KSA, and led as the Director of the KACST — Technology Innovation Center (TIC) for Solid-State Lighting.

He is the recipient of the 2024 OSA Sang Soo Lee Award, the 2023 Khalifa International Award, and multiple best paper awards. He is the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Photonics Technology Letters and an Editorial Board Member of Proceedings of the IEEE. He is a Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the IEEE, the American Physical Society (APS), Optica, SPIE, and the Institute of Physics (London).

Professor Ooi received his B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow, U.K., in 1992 and 1994, respectively. He joined KAUST from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA, where he held an Associate Professor position and headed the Photonics and Semiconductor Nanostructure Laboratory. In the U.S., his research was primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense, and the Army Research Office. In KSA, major funding support comes from KACST, Saudi Aramco, SABIC, the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), and the U.S. Office of Naval Research-Global (ONR).

His research is primarily concerned with semiconductor lasers, photonic integrated circuits, and optoelectronic systems for communications and sensing. He has contributed significantly to the development of practical technologies for photonic integrated circuits, novel broadband semiconductor lasers, multiple-wavelength lasers, and superluminescent diodes. More recently, his work has focused on GaN-based nanostructures and lasers for solid-state lighting and visible light communications.

He has delivered numerous lectures, seminars, and invited talks at universities, research institutions, and international conferences. He has served as organizing chair for several IEEE, Optica, and MRS conferences, and on the technical program committees of CLEO, IPC, and IEDM. He was an Associate Editor of IEEE Photonics Journal from 2009 to 2015. Presently, he serves as Senior Editor of IEEE Photonics Journal, and Associate Editor of Optics Express and the SPIE Journal of Nanophotonics.

In the KSA, Professor Ooi founded the IEEE Photonics Society Western Saudi Arabia Chapter and has served as its Chair since 2010. He has also been an executive board member of the IEEE Western Saudi Arabia Section since 2010.

KAUST Affiliations

Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering | Electrical Engineering