Three UCLA Engineers Named Fellows of American Association for the Advancement of Science

Three professors at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society. Jane Chang of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Mona Jarrahi and Chee Wei Wong of electrical and computer engineering were elected for their major scientific achievements across the fields of nanoscale thin-film engineering, terahertz optoelectronics and chip-scale photonics, respectively.

The AAAS announced today its 2024 class of 471 new fellows, and the trio is among 10 UCLA faculty members being recognized for their significant scientific and social contributions.

Chang, who holds the William Frederick Seyer Endowed Chair in Materials Electrochemistry, is also a professor of materials science and engineering and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA. She focuses on the synthesis and patterning of multi-functional complex oxide films with tailored electronic, chemical, thermal, mechanical and biological properties. She leads the Electronic Materials Synthesis and Plasma Processing Lab, which has developed plasma etching at the atomic scale, enabling the creation of structured films. Chang is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Vacuum Society. In 2018, she became the first woman to win the AVS Plasma Prize. Chang previously served as the director of Function Accelerated nanoMaterial Engineering — a major multidisciplinary research consortium headquartered at UCLA and supported by the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Jarrahi, who holds the Northrop Grumman Chair in Electrical Engineering, directs the Terahertz Electronics Laboratory where she studies ultrafast electronic and optoelectronic devices. A member of CNSI at UCLA, Jarrahi’s research focuses on expanding the capabilities and applications of terahertz sensing, imaging and communication systems. Widely recognized for her innovative plasmonic and optical advancements, Jarrahi is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society, the optical society Optica, the international society for optics and photonics SPIE, and the Institute of Physics. Among the many honors she has received are the Institution of Engineering and Technology A.F. Harvey Prize, the Moore Inventor Fellowship from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She is also a recipient of UCLA Samueli’s Watanabe Excellence in Research award.

Wong, who holds the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas, Jr. Endowed Term Chair in Engineering, specializes in quantum optics and photonics. His research focuses on nonlinear, quantum and ultrafast optics as well as precision measurement. He leads the Mesoscopic Optics and Quantum Electronics Laboratory, studying the intersection of optical physics, device optoelectronics and solid-state science and engineering, leveraging photonic crystals and chip-scale photonics. The group has achieved breakthroughs in optical physics and sciences with optoelectronic applications in industry. Wong has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, IEEE, SPIE, Optica and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has received the National Institutes of Health Trailblazer award for his development of precision magnetometry at the thermodynamical and quantum limits. He is a member of CNSI and the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at UCLA.

Other recent UCLA Samueli professors who have been inducted to the AAAS include Yi Tang of chemical and biomolecular engineering in 2023, Rafail Ostrovsky of computer science in 2022, and Yang Yang of materials science and engineering and bioengineering in 2019.

Founded in 1848, the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science has more than 120,000 members across nearly 100 countries and is the publisher of Science and other peer-reviewed journals. The association includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million members.