Unil Perera
Regents' Professor Physics and Astronomy- Education
Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 1987
M.S. University of Pittsburgh, 1983
B.S. University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1981
- Specializations
Condensed Matter, Semiconductor Optoelectronics, Nano Sensors, Biomedical Physics, Infrared Physics
- Biography
Unil Perera is a Regents’ Professor of physics specializing in infrared applications for safe and healthy living, which include cancer and colitis screenings and semiconductor optoelectronics devices.
Throughout his career, Perera has developed a variety of sensors, such as UV–FIR detectors, solar cells and semiconductor artificial neurons. He is currently working on developing minimally invasive diagnostic techniques that could lead to portable desktop units for disease screening and evaluating treatment efficacy in physician offices.
Perera is the founder of the Semiconductor Optoelectronics Laboratory at Georgia State University and successfully founded and managed a startup company that commercialized technologies developed in his lab under licenses from GSU. He holds 12 patents.
Perera has participated in numerous research workshops and review panels and has been invited to give keynote presentations worldwide. He has written 11 book chapters, contributed to the CRC Press Dictionary of Electronics, and edited or co-edited four books on devices and thin film technology, including a volume on thin film optical devices for a five-volume handbook. Additionally, he has published more than 200 journal articles and his work has been featured in publications such as Laser Focus World, Photonics Spectra and Reviews of Modern Physics.
Perera has received several prestigious research and teaching awards, including the Alumni Distinguished Professor Award from GSU (2010) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer I award (2020-2022). He is a Life Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), and a Fellow of the IEEE and the IEEE Photonics Society. He served as an editor for the IEEE Journal of Electron Device Society from 2012- 2022 and is currently a sectional board member of the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) Sensors journal (2022-present).