Research Areas:
Fiber Optic Networks, Photonic Integrated Circuits, High Speed Photonic and Electronic Devices, Femtosecond Lasers and Physics

Prof. John Bowers received his MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University. After working for AT&T Bell Laboratories and Honeywell, he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 1987. He is currently the Fred Kavli Chair in Nanotechnology, Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency, Deputy CEO of the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, and a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and of Materials at the UCSB.

Prof. Bowers is a world-leading researcher in the areas of silicon photonics, optoelectronics, energy efficiency and the development of novel low power optoelectronic devices for the next generation of optical networks. His research interests include silicon photonics and integrated circuits, fiber optic networks, thermoelectrics, high efficiency solar cells, and optical switching.

Prof. Bowers was elected a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Inventors. He was also elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), The Optical Society of America (OSA) and the American Physical Society. He received numerous awards including the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Prize (2024), the Indium Phosphide and Related Materials (IPRM) Award by the committee of Compound Semiconductor Week (2021), Photonics Award (2017) & LEOS William Streifer Award (1996) by IEEE, the John Tyndall Award (2012) & Nick Holonyak Jr. Award (2009) by OSA, and the South Coast Business and Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara (2001). He and his co-workers were the award recipients of the EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award for Most Promising Technology for the hybrid silicon laser in 2007.