Moustakas BU’s ‘Innovator of the Year’

Theodore Moustakas has won Boston University’s 2013 Innovator of the Year award, which recognizes faculty members whose research and ideas have led to the formation of companies that benefit society at large.

Moustakas, a developer of semiconductors for photonics and other applications, is the founder of RayVio Corp., a venture-backed company that makes UV LEDs for water purification and disinfection systems.

“Ted Moustakas has been a prolific academic entrepreneur but this past year was especially productive with the launch of venture-capital backed UV LED company RayVio,” said BU Office of Technology Development Managing Director Vinit Nijhawan.

Jean Morrison, BU provost and chief academic officer, presented the award to the professor of electrical and computer engineering on July 16 at Tech, Drugs and Rock & Roll, the university’s annual networking event for individuals involved in university technology transfer in the Boston area.

“Professor Moustakas is an entrepreneurial scientist, whose inventions have been licensed to a number of companies, including major manufacturers of blue LEDs and lasers such as Cree and Philips-Lumileds in United States and Nichia in Japan,” said Morrison. His accomplishments in the past year include nine published peer-reviewed papers and five patent filings.

Moustakas’ research contributions cover a broad spectrum of topics in optoelectronic materials and devices. He is the co-editor of eight books and the author of chapters in nine books and more than 300 papers in technical journals and conference proceedings. He has given 116 invited and plenary talks at national and international conferences, and has received 25 US patents, with several pending, in the fields of nitride semiconductors, amorphous silicon and diamond materials.

He was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1994 and of the Electrochemical Society in 1997. In 2003 he was awarded an honorary degree from Aristotle University. In 2010 he was recognized with the MBE Innovator Award, and in 2011 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award of the BU College of Engineering. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

For more information, visit: www.bu.edu