The International Symposium for Compound Semiconductors (ISCS) has named Huili (Grace) Xing, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, the winner of the 2014 Young Scientist Award. Established in 1986, the award acknowledges technical achievements in the field of compound semiconductors by a scientist younger than 40 years.

Xing is being recognized “for her contributions to the understanding of the fundamental properties of III-V nitrides and graphene, novel devices and demonstrations of devices exhibiting record performance.” A formal presentation will be made on Tuesday, May 13, during the award ceremony of the 41st ISCS conference in Montpellier, France.

A faculty member since 2004, Xing focuses on better understanding the physical phenomena in semiconductors and other novel materials, and designing efficient, state-of-the-art devices that exploit the unique properties of these materials. Primarily, she works with the III-V nitride compound semiconductors, which are the candidates for energy-efficient solid-state lighting and power electronics, and 2D crystals of materials such as grapheme and MoSe2, which show promise as avenues through which to revolutionize nanoelectronics and optoelectronics. Xing has achieved record performances in nitride transistors and III-V tunnel transistors, proposed and demonstrated various novel devices and contributed broadly to the understanding of the materials behind these achievements. Her innovations span from high to low power transistors and from terahertz to optoelectronics.

Most recently, she was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program, for projects aimed at developing next-generation power conversion devices that could dramatically transform how power is controlled and converted through the grid, electric vehicles and appliances, specifically lowering the cost and improving the efficiency of power electronics.

Xing is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Electrochemical Society, American Society for Engineering Education and Materials Research Society. She has authored more than 180 publications, including articles in Science, Nature Journals and the Proceedings of IEEE and International Electron Device Meetings.