Dr. Jerry Meyer, the Navy Senior Scientist for Quantum Electronics at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), has received the 2013 E.O. Hulburt Annual Science Award. This is the highest award the NRL Commanding Officer can confer on an NRL civilian employee.
Dr. Meyer is cited for his exceptional contributions to the science of the opto-electronic properties of quantum confined semiconductors; their theory, growth, characterization, structures, and architectures. His technological breakthroughs for both infrared detectors and lasers are of great importance to the Navy and DoD. Dr. Meyer has combined scientific expertise, service to the research community and programmatic leadership across DoD to produce new capabilities for the defense of the nation.
Dr. Meyer is a senior advisor and subject matter expert on photonics technologies and the science underlying them. Performing basic and applied research in broad areas of semiconductor materials and optoelectronic devices, Dr. Meyer is working to develop compact higher power infrared sources that operate at ambient temperatures for chemical sensing, laser spectroscopy, and the protection of military platforms from heat seeking munitions. Dr. Meyer is also performing basic and applied research in surface plasmons to explore the merging of photonic and electronic technologies, and the growth physics and opto-electronics of narrow band gap semiconductor superlattices for advanced infrared cameras and nonlinear optical devices.
Dr. Jerry Meyer graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics. In 1974, he earned a master's degree in Physics from Brown University, and he completed the doctoral program at Brown in 1977. He came to NRL as a research associate with the National Research Council from 1977 through 1979, and began federal employment at NRL in 1980. Dr. Meyer became head of the Quantum Optoelectronics Section in the Optical Sciences Division in 2000.
Dr. Meyer has been honored with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award (2012), the Dr. Dolores M. Etter Top Navy Scientists and Engineers of the Year Award (2008), an NRL Edison Patent Award (2005), a Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation Award (ONR & NRL, 2001-2005), a Department of the Navy Technology Transfer Royalty Award (2003), the NRL Edison Chapter Sigma Xi Award for Pure Science (2003), an IEEE J. J. Thompson Premium Award for the Session 2002/2003, and a Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer (2001).