DL - Advanced photonic materials for sustainability
In this talk I will provide a comprehensive overview of our research on developing novel materials for photonics while combining experimental and computational tools. First, I will discuss our progress towards discovering new optical emitters for thermophotovoltaics that operate >1,500 oC. Second, I will share how we established a field termed ‘transient photonics’, where we developed optical devices that vanish in water after stable operation. Third, I will present how the alloying of metals can be effectively used to engineer the electromagnetic spectrum, relevant for photo-catalysis. An outlook of potential research directions in photonics with burgeoning materials will be presented.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
-
Add Event to Calendar
- 9500 Gilman Dr
- La Jolla, California
- United States 92093
- Building: Jacobs School of Engineering
- Room Number: 2512
- Click here for Map
- Starts 03 March 2026 08:00 AM UTC
- Ends 11 March 2026 07:00 AM UTC
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Marina
Advanced photonic materials for sustainability
Biography:
Leite is a Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and a Chancellor’s Fellow at UC Davis (USA). She has >80 publications (with 35 journal covers) and has delivered >200 invited talks at conferences and research institutions around the globe. Leite is a Fellow of Optica and of SPIE, a senior member of IEEE and a 2026 IEEE Photonics Lectureship Awardee, an associate editor of APL Materials, a 2025 ACS Energy Lectureship Award finalist, an awardee of the 2016 APS Ovshinsky Sustainable Energy Fellowship from the American Physical Society, and of the 2014 Maryland Academy of Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist Award. Her research interests encompass materials for sustainability and for photonics (including transient devices and photonics switchability), the visualization of dynamic processes at the nanoscale in unconventional semiconductors and the use of AI to forecast their behavior. Before joining UC Davis, Leite was an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. She also worked at NIST and was a post-doctoral scholar at Caltech. Under her guidance, the researchers in the group have received 97 awards in the last 13 years, including 11 NSF graduate fellowships. Leite’s research has been supported by several programs from NSF, DARPA, and by the ARO.