I am writing this letter in support of Dr. Jason Jewell, who spent 4 and a half years at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Materials Department as a Ph.D. student from September 2009 through December 2013. I can verify that Dr. Jewell worked closely with Professors James Speck, Steven DenBaars, Claude Weisbuch, Pierre Petroff, and Shuji Nakamura (2014 Nobel Laureate) in the field of semiconductors. He carried out research at a highly-regarded research institution, published patents and journal articles, etc. while taking courses in the College of Engineering. Dr. Jewell’s thesis was “Embedded Photonic Crystals in Gallium Nitride: MOCVD Growth and LED Design.“
Solid-state lighting (SSL) promises to change the way we light the world today, yet much work and research are still needed. Unlike incandescent and fluorescent light sources, in solid state lighting, electricity is converted directly into light and hence saves us a lot of energy. Today, LED (light emitting diode) technologies illuminate grocery display cases, make parking garages and streets brighter and safer, and proliferate on retail shelves. Homeowners and businesses are making the switch to SSL at an ever-faster pace, as product costs fall and performance keeps improving. The result: Americans are already saving hundreds of millions of dollars on energy, while reducing carbon emissions and making our nation less-dependent on fossil-generated power. Blue-emitting quantum well (QW) nitride LEDs along with yellow phosphors made the present white LED a reality and scientists who developed blue LEDs received the “2014 Nobel prize in physics,” one of whom was Dr. Jewell’s professor at UCSB.