Esquire: Halas among ‘best and brightest’
 Rice University nano-optics researcher Naomi Halas took her place with 41 other rising American stars in Esquire magazine’s “Best & Brightest 2006” list, which appeared in the December 2006 issue.
Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry, was featured in the article, “The Women of America: An Esquire Investigation into People Who Are Really Good at What They Do.”
Esquire’s annual list showcases the nation’s top minds in the worlds of science, culture, education, public service and the arts. Halas is one of nine honorees in the science category. She was recognized for work in nano-optics and cancer research. Esquire singled out her most famous discovery, metallic particles called nanoshells, for “their freakish ability to capture light.” The article said, “Nanoshells will soon be helping mankind kill tumors, sniff out chemical weapons and even improve solar power.”
It also recognized the contributions of Halas’ longtime collaborator in the development of biomedical applications of nanotechnology, Jennifer West, the Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering and professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering.
Halas joined Rice in 1989. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Optical Society of America, a recipient of the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and a four-time winner of the Rice Engineering Alumni’s Hershel M. Rich Invention Award. She received the Cancer Innovator Award from the congressionally directed medical research programs of the U.S. Department of Defense in 2003.
Halas was nominated for Esquire’s “Best & Brightest” list by 2005 honoree Amy Myers Jaffe, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
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