Dean Bobbitt Appoints Greg Salamo Inaugural Holder of Basore Professorship

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Gregory Salamo, distinguished professor in physics, is the newly appointed Joe N. Basore Professor in Nanotechnology and Innovation, an endowed professorship created through a $278,000 gift from John A. Cooper, Jr. and Pat Cooper of Bella Vista. 

The Coopers’ gift will be matched dollar for dollar by the Matching Gift Program, established through the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation’s $300 million gift to the University of Arkansas.

 “The Coopers have made it possible for the college to recognize and reward our most productive faculty members, such as Greg Salamo,” said Donald Bobbitt, dean of Fulbright College. “Greg’s research is notable for its depth and breadth, from fundamental problems in quantum mechanics and nanoscience to improving the way science is taught. His work has been featured as the cover story in “Optics and Photonics News” and has appeared in noted national and international journals. He is a master teacher who has developed the majority of optics courses for graduate students. His work is absolutely outstanding.”

The professorship is named in honor of Joe N. Basore, Senior Vice President with Cooper Communities. He developed marketing strategies for the company, helping John Cooper, Jr. in  overseeing the company’s growth. Married to Ann Woollard, the sister of John A. Cooper, Jr.,  Basore earned his bachelor’s degree from the U of A in 1950. He died in June 1998.

The endowment will be used to advance work in microelectronics-photonics, particularly in nanotechnology. In addition to supplementing the holder’s salary, the funds will pay for graduate assistant salaries, course development, equipment and research.

“I feel honored to receive the Basore Chair,” said Salamo. “I recognize that such a gift is one of the highest honors the university can give to a faculty member. At the same time, I am also aware of how many colleagues and students have contributed to creating this opportunity. I have always believed in a team effort, and this gift is certainly the result of an effort that includes several of my colleagues and some very hard-working students, as well as a lot of family support. This university has given me opportunity after opportunity to succeed.”

Salamo received his doctoral degree in physics from City University of New York in 1973, where he also worked as an intern student at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J. He joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas in January of 1975.

Since 2000, he has won more than $15 million in grants for both research and education, from the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Education. He has written more than 130 peer-reviewed articles that have appeared in the top scientific journals, such as Applied Physics Letters, Science, and Physical Review Letters.

Salamo is director of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Semiconductor Physics in Nanostructures, established in 2000 with a $4.5 million five-year grant from the NSF - at that time, the largest NSF grant the university had received to date.

In his research, he has experimentally discovered a new way to use a light beam to create waveguides, leading to the possibility of developing speedier methods for switching and transferring information in optical communication systems. In the nanosciences, Salamo and colleagues are uncovering new possibilities for engineering faster, smarter electronics; devices that can identify and treat diseases at an earlier stage; and solar cells that can help reduce a dependency on foreign oil.

In 1994, he received the Distinguished Service Award for Research from the UA Alumni Association, and in 1999, he won the Master Research Award from Fulbright College. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.

With support from the National Science Foundation, he has developed innovative new courses, such as “Physics for Architects,” as well as a laboratory course in laser physics, the first of its kind in the country,

A University Professor of Physics, Salamo said the university’s research programs are making rapid progress because of a dynamic combination of “people, ideas and tools.”

“The resources of this chair will seed the investigation of the growth and behavior of biological structures on semiconductor surfaces. My hope is that my colleagues and I will discover new science that is currently hidden at the boundaries of different disciplines,” said Salamo.