Loncar wins 2012 Levenson Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Marko Loncar leading a lab as part of ES 50, Introduction to Elect

Marko Loncar leading a lab as part of ES 50, Introduction to Electrical Engineering. (Photo by Eliza Grinnell, SEAS Communications.)

Electrical engineer praised for his devotion to instruction in the College
Marko Loncar , Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been awarded the 2012 Levenson Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by the Education Committee of the Harvard Undergraduate Council.

The number of nominees was particularly high this year, says Sam Himel ’12, the Undergraduate Council Education Chair. Loncar was chosen based upon positive testimonials from current and former students.

Loncar will receive his award at the Levenson Prize and Marquand Award Dinner on Wednesday, April 25, at 5:30 p.m. in the Dunster House Dining Hall.

An expert in nanophotonics and quantum optics, Loncar studies the interactions of light and matter at the nano- scale. His current work involves controlling the behavior of photons, trapping and releasing them at a practical rate within tiny diamond structures.

In a sense, he is working to build a network of fiber-optic cables at the scale of an extremely small computer chip. The end goal of this work is to integrate sophisticated optical and microelectronic technologies into novel devices for rapid and efficient communication, signal processing, and biological sensing.

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Loncar’s research blends the theoretical with the experimental, ranging from the development of sophisticated numerical models, which explore the underlying physics of nanophotonics and quantum phenomena, to new fabrication techniques for nanoscale structures.

Loncar studied electrical engineering at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology.

He came to Harvard in October 2003 as a postdoctoral scholar in applied physics, and in July 2006 became an assistant (later associate) professor of electrical engineering.

In 2009, Loncar received the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award and in 2010 was granted a research fellowship by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Loncar currently teaches ES 50, "Introduction to Electrical Engineering," and ES 273, "Optics and Photonics."