Wayne State professor honored with UNESCO Medal for renowned influence on nanoscience

In recognition of his contributions to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnologies, Professor Mohammed Ismail was among 10 prominent scientists to receive the UNESCO Medal in November at the organization's headquarters in Paris, France.

Ismail, chair of electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University, is a founding director of the Khalifa Semiconductor Research Center in the United Arab Emirates. His achievements include the development of the world first self-powered wearable device that can predict the onset of a heart attack ahead of time, as well as one of the first combo CMOS RF WLAN radios compliant with IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards. He is well known internationally as one of the pioneers in the field of analog, RF and mixed signal integrated circuit design in digital CMOS processes, which has led to the successful integration of many of today's complete CMOS systems-on-chip in mobile phones, notebooks, biochips and other IoT devices.

"I was delighted and very humbled to hear the news of my nomination and selection by UNESCO to receive this great honor," said Ismail. "I would like to dedicate this recognition to all my colleagues and students over the years at Ohio State, KTH, Sweden, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi and Wayne State."

Ismail joined the Wayne State University faculty in 2016. He has spent over 30 years in academia and industry, having worked in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Egypt, and UAE. He co-directed the Mubadala-SRC Center of Excellence for Energy Efficient Electronics Systems, also known as ACE4S. He is currently launching the Wayne Center for Integrated Circuits and Systems (WINCAS) at WSU.

"They impact electronics and computing, medicine, materials and manufacturing, energy and transportation," said Miguel Clusener-Godt, director of UNESCO's Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences, of the 2018 award recipients. "Nanoscience and nanotechnology have the potential to foster new developments in science, technology and innovation via the dissemination of new knowledge and applications."

The UNESCO Medal for nanoscience and nanotechnologies was established in 2010, and since then 46 medals have been awarded to renowned scientists, institutions and public figures. Among the past recipients are Zhores Alferov and Isamu Akasaki, winners of the 2000 and 2014 Nobel Prizes, respectively, in physics; Chunli Bai, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.