John D. Joannopoulos

Leader in computational simulation, first of electronic structure in materials, and then in the electromagnetic simulation and design of novel photonic crystal structures. His concepts in electromagnetic design have led to over 90 U.S. and foreign patents, over 600 publications, and in the founding of a number of startup companies based on his ideas, including OmniGuide Communications, which applies the principle of omni-directional reflection to laser surgery. He and his group designed the first successful two-dimensional photonic bandgap structure. In the area of material simulation, he provided many of the first ab-initio calculations for the electronic and geometric structure of solids.