Zetian Mi receives 2025 Nick Holonyak Jr. Award from Optica

Zetian Mi received the 2025 Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award “For outstanding contributions to the engineering of wide energy gap nanostructures for light emission and energy generation applications.”

The Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award was established by Optica to recognize individuals who have “made significant contributions to optics based on semiconductor-based optical devices and materials, including basic science and technological applications.” 

Mi’s research on low dimensional and wide bandgap semiconductors has consistently led to innovations in optoelectronics, quantum photonics, and energy. His research group has developed efficient and stable green and red micro-LEDs for use in automotive and artificial or augmented reality displays. Another focus of Mi’s research enables the synthesis of hydrogen fuel and ethelyne through artificial photosynthesis.

Mi and his group have also led research on ferroelectric III-nitride semiconductors, which has the potential to revolutionize next-generation electronics and enable AI on mobile devices. He has also updated the underlying theory behind these materials. He is working toward integrating these materials with silicon technology, enabling high-temperature microelectronics and quantum transduction, and developing quantum semiconductors.

Using technology developed in his research, Mi has co-founded two companies: NX Fuels and NS Nanotech. NS Nanotech recently released the first solid-state semiconductor to produce human-safe disinfecting UV light, enabling continuous disinfection of school buses, ambulances, and other confined, high-risk spaces.

Mi is the Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Quantum Electronics and Serial Editor of Semiconductors and Semimetals. He served as the Vice President for Conferences of IEEE Photonics Society (2022-2023), General Chair of IEEE Photonics Society Summer Topicals Meeting (2016-2017), Co-Chair of International Symposium on Semiconductor Light Emitting Devices (2017), General Chair of IEEE Photonics Conference (2020), and Program Chair of Compound Semiconductor Week Conference (2022).

He has received the ISCS Quantum Devices Award (2024), the IEEE Nanotechnology Council Distinguished Lecturer Award (2023), the Science and Engineering Award from W. M. Keck Foundation (2020), and the IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Award (2021). Within the University of Michigan, he has received the Wise-Najafi Prize for Engineering Excellence in the Miniature World (2025), the Rexford E. Hall Innovation Excellence Award (2024), and the David E. Liddle Research Excellence Award (2021). He is a fellow of Optica, IEEE, APS, and SPIE.

Mi will be formally presented with the award at the Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2025 meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Optica Names Zetian Mi the 2025 Nick Holonyak Jr Award Recipient