Colorado State Researcher Wins Technology Transfer Award

Carmen Menoni, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Colorado State University, has received the Colorado Technology Transfer Award.

The award recognizes her success in transferring research results to a high technology Colorado company. Menoni successfully developed a dry etching process that employs highly directional energetic ions for fabricating gallium nitride optical detectors and waveguides.

She has been collaborating with Astralux Inc., a photonics company located in Boulder, to bring the technology to commercial readiness. This award recognizes the success Menoni has achieved in transferring her new technology to Astralux.

The Colorado Technology Transfer Award is part of the Colorado Photonics and Optoelectronics Program funded by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. The purpose of the award is to stimulate interest and reward success in transferring photonics technology from Colorado universities to Colorado businesses.

Recipients of the award receive a $3,000 grant to support their continuing research activities. In the past, researchers from Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado have received the award.

Colorado has a major cluster of companies, universities and government laboratories focused on the photonics industry. With more than 200 organizations involved in photonics, Colorado has become a national leader in this technology that drives fiber optics communications, optical storage, displays and other key industries.