Marin Soljačić
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As a boy growing up in Croatia, Marin Soljacic wanted to be an inventor. But he wasn’t interested only in designing new products; he wanted to discover physical phenomena that would enable completely new technologies. In that, Soljacic has succeeded remarkably.
A physicist and an inventor
Most technologies for harnessing the sun’s energy capture the light itself, which is turned into electricity using photovoltaic materials. Others use the sun’s thermal energy, usually concentrating the sunlight with mirrors to generate enough heat to boil water and turn a generating turbine. A third, less common approach is to use the sun’s heat — also concentrated by mirrors — to generate electricity directly, using solid-state devices called thermophotovoltaics, which have their roots at MIT dating back to the 1950s.
A novel way to concentrate sun’s heat
Be aware as Dr. Marin Soljačić Rises to Science Stardom
Dr. Marin Soljačić Born in Zagreb, Croatia, 37 years ago, Dr.
Two MIT faculty win MacArthur 'genius' grants
Two MIT faculty members -- a physicist and a structural engineer who studies architectural history -- have won 2008 MacArthur Fellowships, commonly known as "genius" grants. Marin Soljacic '96, assistant professor of physics, and John Ochsendorf, associate professor of architecture, will each receive $500,000 in "no strings attached" support over five years from the John D. and Catherine T.
No, it's just that his head's in two fields at once-electrical engineering and physics. That polyvirtuosity may have helped the MIT professor win one of the 25 fellowships announced today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
MacArthur Fellow
TR35: Marin Soljacic, 32
To understand the ambitions of Marin Soljacic, think of what the first semiconductor transistors did for the speed and power of computer circuitry--and then think photons instead of electrons. By calculating the behavior of light in structures called photonic crystals, Soljacic is paving the way for devices that can process information at ultrafast speeds using light alone.
Technological advances of the past decade have enabled the control of the material structure at length-scales smaller than the wavelength of light.