Alumni Spotlight
 

Van Slyke Sheds New Light on Electronic Displays

Steven Van Slyke is earning professional accolades this year from fellow scientists at the prestigious American Chemical Society (ACS). At its annual meeting the society is honoring Van Slyke for his groundbreaking work in electronic displays with an ACS Award for team vision.

Working with a team at Eastman Kodak, Van Slyke pioneered the development of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology. One peer praised his work saying Van Slyke "literally created a technology." Indeed the H&S grad's work is already revolutionizing the way we view electronic displays.

Unlike traditional liquid crystal displays (LCDs), OLEDs are self-luminous. They do not require backlighting, eliminating the need for bulky, environmentally undesirable mercury lamps. The technology allows the production of thinner displays that are more compact and more energy efficient than traditional LCDs. The technology is already available in certain car audio components, digital cameras, and cell phones and will soon make an appearance in DVDs and PDAs.

Originally from Denver, Van Slyke earned a B.S. in chemistry from Ithaca in 1978. He began his career as a research scientist at Kodak in 1979 and continued his education at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he earned an M.S. in materials science in 1988. HS