Dr. Dennis Prather began his professional career by joining the US Navy in 1982, where he still serves in the reserves as an Engineering Duty Officer (0-5). After active duty, he received the BSEE, MSEE, and PhD from the University of Maryland in 1989, 1993, and 1997, respectively. During this time he worked as a senior researcher engineer for the Army Research Laboratory, where he performed research on both optical devices and architectures for information processing. His efforts included work on the modeling, design, and fabrication of meso-scale optical elements and their integration with active opto-electronic devices, such as VCSELS, IR FPAs and semiconductor lasers. During this work he developed computational electromagnetic models for the analysis of aperiodic-subwavelength and nano-scale photonic devices. In 1997 he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware. Currently he is the College of Engineering Alumni Distinguished Professor and his research focuses on both the theoretical and experimental aspects of active and passive nano-photonic elements and their integration into various subsystems. To achieve this, his lab develops and refines coupled computational electromagnetic and quantum mechanical models as well as the associated nano-fabrication (with a specialty in electron beam lithography) and integration processes necessary for their demonstration. Specific devices and applications include: subwavelength structures, photonic crystal devices, high frequency optical modulators, meta-materials, and RF-Photonics.
Dr. Prather is currently an Endowed Professor of Electrical Engineering, he is a senior member of the IEEE, Fellow of the Society of Photo-Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA). He received the Outstanding Junior Faculty in the College of Engineering in 2000, the William J. Kastner Award for Naval Engineering Excellence, in 2000, as well as the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, in 1999 and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, in 1999. He has authored or co-authored over 300 scientific papers, holds over 40 patents, and has written 10 books/book-chapters.
Prof. Prather’s recent research work is featured on page 13. View PDF.
