Prof. Michael Shur of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are 20 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs and nearly 3 times more efficient than compact fluorescent lamps. It is even more important that LEDs can produce light optimized for specific needs and applications, such as light for treating seasonal affective disorder, growing plants, and preserving or even "restoring" paintings and objects of art. Many emerging applications are in medicine, lighting for seniors, merchandising, the automotive industry, photography, the film industry, and theatre lighting. We are truly in the middle of the smart lighting revolution. All these applications will benefit from new metrics of light quality - color rendition metrics demonstrated by a smart LED lamp - the color rendition engine.
But LEDs go beyond the visible range: they are capable of producing ultraviolet (UV) light. UV radiation finds numerous applications in water and air purification, sterilization, biological threat identification, medicine, biology, industrial processes, defense, and homeland security. Conventional ultraviolet mercury, xenon, and deuterium lamps are bulky, might contain mercury, produce ozone, require high voltages, slow to turn on and have a limited set of available wavelengths. UV LEDs are environmentally friendly and compact sources consuming low power and emitting at many wavelengths. Research is now underway to use these LEDs for increasing yield, improving quality, and extending the storage time of fruits and vegetables. One UV LEDs will help reduce waste, alleviate the problem of world hunger, purify water, kill bacteria and viruses, and solve the tremendous problem of Hospital Acquired Infections (leading to nearly 100,000 deaths annually in the United States alone).

Biography:

Michael Shur is Patricia W. and C. Sheldon Roberts Professor of Solid State Electronics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and co-founder of Sensor Electronics Technology, Inc., and Electronics of the Future, Inc. He is a Life Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors, IEEE, APS, ECS, OSA, SPIE, and a Fellow of AAAS, IOP, and IET. His awards include IEEE and IET Awards, Tibbetts Award for Technology Commercialization, Senior Humboldt Research Award, RPI Research Awards, Best Paper Awards, and St. Petersburg Technical University and the University of Vilnius Honorary Doctorates. He is an IEEE EDS and Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer and a Foreign Member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

Email:

Address:Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, CII 6015, 110 8th Street, Troy, New York, United States, 12110