Published: July 29, 2020

Faculty Spotlight

Wounjhang (Won) Park: Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering

Education and experience

Park earned his PhD in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, writing his thesis on the optical properties of thin film phosphors. He joined the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder in 2001 in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, becoming a full professor in 2015. He is also a fellow in the Materials Science and Engineering Program and has been a member of the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Cancer Center since 2008.

Research interests

Park’s group studies light-matter interaction in nanoscale materials and structures and develops photonic devices based on them. Examples are plasmonic nanostructures, photonic crystals, metamaterials and metasurfaces, high-Q resonators, and luminescent materials. They also conduct extensive theoretical modeling studies, synthesis and fabrication of nanostructures and spectroscopy and microscopy to demonstrate novel optical phenomena. Targeted applications include nonlinear and quantum optical devices, energy harvesting devices, biomedical imaging and nano-medicine approach for cancer treatment. Park is currently working with Ralph Jimenez, an adjoint associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences on a ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥bit seed grant exploring photon and nanomaterials engineering for quantum-enhanced biosensing.Ìý

Interdisciplinary work

Park said his lab collaborates with chemists, chemical engineers, physicists and medical professionals on many different projects. One that showcases this interdisciplinary work uses plasmonic nanostructures to diagnose and treat cancer. If successful, the technique they are developing could simultaneously image and kill cancer cells. Their work and testing focus on bladder cancer, the fourth most common non-skin cancer among men in the U.S. The team uses a gold nanorod bonded with an antibody that targets bladder cancer cells. When inserted into the bladder, it selectively binds to cancer cells which can then be destroyed upon irradiation by laser induced heating. Park and his collaborators have patents around this technique, which was recently described in Materials Science and Engineering: C.