WASHINGTON, D.C. –
The American Physical Society (APS) selected John Lyons, Ph.D., a physical scientist in the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Materials Science and Technology Division, as a 2025
APS Fellow for his fundamental contributions to the understanding and design of wide-band-gap semiconductors using first-principles methods, including strategies for semiconductor doping and for understanding and controlling exciton fine structure.
APS Fellowship is a distinct honor recognizing members who have made exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise through research, applications, leadership, or education. Fewer than 0.5% of the Society’s members are elected each year.
“I’m honored to be recognized by APS and by my peers in the physics community,” Lyons said. “Much of my work focuses on understanding doping and defects in semiconductors like gallium oxide and gallium nitride—materials that are key to the next generation of radar and high-power electronic systems.”
At NRL, Lyons leads theoretical research aimed at identifying and designing new semiconductor materials that can advance Navy technologies. His team’s recent work includes a computational search for bright-exciton semiconductor materials, using predictive modeling to identify promising compounds that could later be synthesized and tested in NRL laboratories.
“These new materials have the potential to outperform existing nanocrystals in brightness and efficiency,” Lyons explained. “By combining theory with experiment, we’re helping to accelerate materials discovery that could enable technologies many years down the line.”
Lyons collaborates closely with NRL’s Electronics Science and Technology Division, whose researchers grow and characterize semiconductor materials used in high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices.
“It’s a great partnership,” Lyons said. “We develop the theoretical models that predict material behavior, and they conduct the experiments that put those predictions to the test. This kind of collaboration is one of NRL’s strengths.”
Lyons, who has been a member of APS for more than 16 years, will be recognized at the APS March Meeting in 2026, the Society’s annual gathering of physicists from around the world.
“The work we’re doing today builds on decades of investment in materials research,” Lyons said. “Just as earlier studies on gallium nitride led to the radar systems used on ships today, our efforts today on gallium oxide and other emerging materials will support the Navy’s future missions.”
About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL, located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.
For more information, contact NRL Corporate Communications at (202) 480-3746 or
nrlpao@us.navy.mil.