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Dr. Muhammad Z. Alam receives the 2013 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence from Dr. Ian L. McWalter, president and CEO of CMC Microsystems. Photo courtesy of Mark Holleron.

Dr. Muhammad Zulfiker Alam, a post-doctoral fellow in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, has been announced as the 2013 recipient of the Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence. Alam received the award at a ceremony Tuesday evening in Gatineau, Que. at CMC Microsystems’ 2013 Annual Symposium.

The Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence recognizes excellence in research leading to new understanding and novel developments in microsystems and related technologies, such as photonics/optoelectronics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), microelectronics, microfluidics and embedded software, or the application of microsystems and related technologies in Canada. The annual award includes a medal and a monetary prize of $4,500 and is presented by CMC Microsystems.

Alam’s doctoral work, co-supervised by Professors Mo Mojahedi (ECE) and Stewart Aitchison (ECE), focused on theory and applications of hybrid plasmonic waveguides; specifically, on overcoming the limitations of plasmonics posed by high loss. Alam’s most significant contribution was the first proposal of the hybrid plasmonic waveguide, which utilizes the plasmonic confinement property but does not suffer large loss— this has been widely accepted as one of the most promising plasmonic waveguides proposed to date.

Alam’s PhD thesis resulted in 13 publications in high-impact journals, 20 conference publications and eight invited talks.

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