Mitin elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America

By Nicole Capozziello

As an OSA Fellow, he joins a distinguished group of members who have made significant contributions to the advancement of optics and photonics through education, research, engineering, business leadership and service.

The Optical Society of America was founded in 1916 and is currently comprised of 23,000 members from over 100 countries. Since 1959, over 2,500 members have been made a Fellow of the OSA.

“For roughly half a century, Vladimir has made seminal contributions to the study of high-speed semiconductor devices and to our understanding of the physical properties of semiconductors, making him a distinguished scholar and researcher who’s recognized around the globe,” says Jonathan Bird, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering. “He has been a loyal servant to the university, most notably as the department chair from 2003 to 2009, and his recognition by the OSA is well-deserved.”

Mitin, a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, is an expert in controllable/adaptable terahertz and infrared detectors and emitters. He combines a high level of fundamental theoretical work with an ability to transform his findings into ideas for practical applications, such as environmental and industrial monitoring and flight control. He is currently collaborating with colleagues from SUNY Polytechnic Institute, the Army Research Lab and Sendai University in Japan.

Mitin has published numerous papers in OSA journals, and recently published a book, Introduction to Optical and Optoelectronic Properties of Nanostructures. He is a Fellow of American Physical Society (APS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), Institute of Physics and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and has received numerous awards recognitions, including Presidential Who’s Who Among Business and Professional Achievers in 2011; New York State Office of Science, Technology & Academic Research (NYSTAR) Distinguished Professor of 2005; and UB Exceptional Scholar Program’s Sustained Achievement Award in 2005.

Mitin received his PhD in physical and mathematical sciences from the Institute of Semiconductors, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in 1971 and was awarded a Doctor of Science degree, in recognition of his substantial and sustained contribution to scientific knowledge beyond that required for a PhD, in 1986. He served as a research scientist there from 1971 to 1989. He was a professor at Wayne State University from 1989 until he was recruited to join the University at Buffalo as the chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering in 2003.