UCLA Samueli Newsroom

Aaswath Raman, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at UCLA, has been elected as a 2022 senior member of the National Academy of Inventors. The honor recognizes inventors at academic institutions with a track record of success in developing their technologies into beneficial commercial products.

The academy announced its 2022 class of 83 senior members today in celebration of National Inventors’ Day. The recognition is given to “rising stars who foster a spirit of innovation within their communities and institutions while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.”

Raman’s research focuses on controlling light and heat at the nanoscale. Working from a multidisciplinary computational and experimental perspective, his laboratory designs, creates and studies metamaterials and photonic devices that can shape, absorb and emit light in highly unusual but advantageous ways over a broad range of wavelengths. His research group connects these advancements to solid-state and electronic devices to enable new functionalities. Raman’s research has applications in  renewable energy, information processing, sensing, displays, communication systems and outer space.

Raman, who cofounded the startup SkyCool Systems, joined the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering in 2018. He is a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and has received several early career honors, including a Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a Hellman Fellowship, a Sloan Research Fellowship and the Materials Research Society Robinson Award for Science and Technology in Renewable Energy.

The 2022 new National Academy of Inventors cohort will be inducted at the Senior Members Induction Ceremony at the 11th annual Academy meeting on June 14-15 in Phoenix, Arizona.