So named Walter and Ida Freeman Distinguished Professor

Dr. Franky So has been named the Walter and Ida Freeman Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at North Carolina State University by Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering.

So’s research is focused on the area of organic and nanocrystal materials for optoelectronic device applications and some of his current research topics include materials and device physics of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic solar cells and nanocrystal-based sensors.

So has won multiple awards, including the Motorola Distinguished Innovator and Master Innovator and the Department of Energy’s Significant Achievement Award in Solid State Lighting (2009 and 2010). He is also a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE and a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors.

He joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida in 2005 and was named the Rolf E. Hummel Professor of Electronic Materials. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), Optical Society of America (OSA) and International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE).

He has published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles and has won multiple awards, including the Distinguished Innovator and Master Innovator Awards while working for Motorola and the Department of Energy’s Significant Achievement Award in Solid State Lighting (2009 and 2010).

Prior to becoming a professor, So was a research manager at the Motorola Corporate Research Laboratories and the Head of Research at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. While working as a research manager at Motorola, So was also instrumental to commercialization of the world’s first OLED displays used in mobile phones in 2000.

He received a B.A. in physics from Hamilton College, an M.S. in materials science from MIT and a Ph.D. (1991) in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.