Joyce Poon is Professor of

Electrical and Computer Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

and Director of the

Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics The Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle (Saale) is a research institute in Germany focused novel materials with useful functionalities. Active research topics includes spintronics, neuromorphic systems, nano-photonics, topologic ...

, where her research focuses on developing new optical devices for applications in

neurotechnology Neurotechnology encompasses any method or electronic device which interfaces with the nervous system to monitor or modulate neural activity. Common design goals for neurotechnologies include using neural activity readings to control external devi ...

. She is also an honorary professor at the

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

. She is a Fellow of Optica (formerly the Optical Society), and has been serving as a Director-At-Large for the society since January 2021.

Early life and education

Poon was born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and grew up in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. She obtained a B.A.Sc. in

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

from the University of Toronto in 2002 and an M.S. in

Electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

in 2007. She stayed at Caltech to carry out her PhD under the supervision of Professor

Amnon Yariv Amnon Yariv (; born April 13, 1930) is an Israeli-American professor of applied physics and electrical engineering at Caltech, known for innovations in optoelectronics. Yariv obtained his B.S., M.S. and PhD. in electrical engineering from Univers ...

. Her thesis studied ways to control

slow light In optics, slow light is the propagation of an optical pulse or other modulation of an optical carrier at a very low group velocity. Slow light occurs when a propagating pulse is substantially slowed by the interaction with the medium in which the ...

optical waveguides An optical waveguide is a physical structure that guides electromagnetic waves in the optical spectrum. Common types of optical waveguides include optical fiber waveguides, transparent dielectric waveguides made of plastic and glass, liquid ligh ...

and was awarded the Milton and Francis Clauser Doctoral Prize. During her graduate studies, she founded Caltech's Student Chapter of Optica.

Research and career

In 2007, Poon moved back to the

, where she is now Professor of

. Her early research continued investigating waveguide resonators. While at Toronto, she built a research team focused on studying silicon-based integrated photonic technologies for applications in

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

. Her research group also focuses on

, and investigate how integrated photonic devices can be used to develop new

brain imaging Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incre ...

techniques. Poon became an honorary professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at

in 2018. She is also principal investigator at the Neurotech Alliance and the Center for Advancing Neurotechnological Innovation to Application (CRANIA) at the University of Toronto.

Awards and honours

Poon was elected as a Fellow of Optica in 2018 "''for outstanding contributions to the research and development of silicon-based integrated optics, including microresonators, electro-optic modulators and integrated hybrid photonics".'' She is a Director-At-Large at Optica. She was awarded the University of Toronto's McCharles' Prize for Early Career Distinction in 2013, and named one of the world's Top 35 IT innovators under 35 by the

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

in 2012. Poon is a two-time recipient of the

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Faculty Award (2010, 2011), and also received the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Award (2009) and a University Faculty Award from the

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; , CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering research in Canada. NSERC directly funds university professors and students as ...

(2008).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poon, Joyce Living people Women in optics University of Toronto alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto 21st-century women scientists 21st-century women engineers Fellows of Optica (society) Year of birth missing (living people) Max Planck Institute directors