The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that two of UT-ECE's assistant professors have been awarded 2008 Young Faculty Awards. The awards were established to identify the next generation of researchers working in microsystems technology.

Dr Emanuel Tutuc received the award to develop novel semiconductor nanowire field effect transistors, which operate thanks to a quantum phenomena named band-to-band tunneling. Such devices posses both a fast switching speed along with a low operating power, and can provide relief to a pervasive array of high-performance electronic applications where power dissipation is a key issue.

Dr. Seth Bank received the award to develop new semiconductor nanostructures for lasers operating in the mid-infrared portion of the optical spectrum. Such sources of mid-infrared light have many diverse potential applications ranging from pollution monitoring to non-invasive cancer detection to protecting the commercial air fleet from heat-seeking missiles.