Biographical Sketch of Prof. M. Jamal Deen


Dr. M. Jamal Deen was born in Georgetown, Guyana, South Ameriica. He completed a B.Sc. degree in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Guyana (1978), a M.S. degree (1982) and a Ph.D. degree (1985) in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. His Ph.D. dissertation was on the design and modeling of a new CARS spectrometer for dynamic temperature measurements and combustion optimization in rocket and jet engines and was sponsored by NASA, Cleveland, USA. He received the Dr. Eng. (honoris causa) degree from the University of Waterloo, ON, Canada (2011), the Doctor degree (honoris causa) from the Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain (2012) and the Doctor degree (honoris causa) from the Universitat Rovira I Virgili (URV), Tarragona, Spain (2014) for his exceptional scholarly achievements and service contributions, and exemplary professionalism.

From 1978-1980, Dr. Deen was an Instructor of Physics at the University of Guyana, and from 1980 to 1983, he was a Research Assistant at Case Western Reserve University. He was a Research Engineer (1983-1985) and then an Assistant Professor (1985 -1986) at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1986, he joined the School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, as an Assistant Professor, and from 1993 to 2002, he was a Full Professor. From summer 1999, he assumed his current position as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. In July 2001, he was awarded a Senior Canada Research Chair in Information Technology, and is currently Director of the Micro- and Nano-Systems Laboratory (MNSL), McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada..

Dr. Deen was a Visiting Scientist at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics,, National Research Council, Ottawa in summer 1986, and he spent his sabbatical leave as a Visiting Scientist at Northern Telecom, Ottawa in 1992-1993. He was a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, in summer 1997 and a CNRS Directeur de Recherche at the Laboratoire de Physique des Composants à Semiconducteurs (LPCS), Grenoble, France in summer 1998 and at the Centre d'Electronique et de Micro-optoélectronique de Montpellier  (CEM2), France in 2002-2003; and an Invited Professor at the Technische Universitaet Berlin, Fachgebiet Mikrowellentechnik from January to July 2007.

Dr. Deen has published extensively in microelectronics/nanolectronics and optoelectronics. Dr. Deen’s research record includes more than 500 peer-reviewed articles (about 20% are invited), two textbooks on Silicon Photonics—Fundamentals and Devices (Wiley, 2012), Fiber Optic Communications – Fundamentals and Applications (Wiley 2014), 20 authored/edited books and conference proceedings, 16 invited book chapters, six awarded patents that have been used in industry, and 13 best paper/poster/presentation awards. He has given one hundred and forty-eight invited/keynote/plenary conference presentations. He has also served as a consultant to the semiconductor industry in Canada, the USA and Japan. His research interests include nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, nanotechnology, and their emerging applications in health and environmental sciences.

Dr. Deen is/was an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (2001-2010); a founding Executive Editor of Fluctuations and Noise Letters (2001-present); and a Member of the Editorial Boards of the following journals - Interface, The Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the International Journal of High Speed Electronics and Systems, the Microelectronics Journal and the Open Journal of Applied Physics. He is also the Regional Editor for Canada and Central USA of the IEEE Electron Devices Society Newsletter. Dr. Deen has served as the technical chair, general chair, principal organizer, member of the technical committee or member of the international steering committee of numerous conferences in his fields of research interest. He also served as the Chair of NSERC Grant Selection Committee 334 – Communications, Computers and Component Engineering (2006-07).

Dr. Deen's students are well-respected in industry. For example, his students now work at several major national and international companies such as AT&T Bell Labs (USA), Conexant Inc. (USA), Intel (USA), Texas Instruments (USA), Siemens Corporation (Germany),  Glenayre Electronics R&D (Canada), Nortel Networks (Canada), Perkin-Elmer (Canada) and PMC Sierra (Canada).

Dr. Deen is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, the Electrical Engineering honor society. As an undergraduate student, he was the top physics and mathematics student, winning both the Chancellor’s medal as the second best graduating student (in the university) and the Irving Adler prize as the best mathematics student (1978). As a graduate student, he was a Fulbright-Laspau Scholar from 1980 to 1982 and an American Vacuum Society Scholar from 1983 to 1984. He was awarded a NSERC Senior Industrial Fellow in 1993. Dr. Deen is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Electron Device Society; was awarded the 2002 Thomas D. Callinan Award (2002) as well as the Electronics and Photonics Division Award (2011) from the Electrochemical Society; the Distinguished Researcher Award, Province of Ontario in July 2001; a Humboldt Research Award (2006) from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; an IBM Faculty Award in 2006; the Eadie Medal from the Royal Society of Canada in 2008, the McNaughton Gold Medal in 2013, the Fessenden Silver Medal in 2011, as well as the Ham Education Medal in 2014, all from IEEE Canada..

Dr. Deen has been elected by his peers as Fellow/Member of ten national academies and professional societies  - Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) - The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE), Member (Academician) - European Academy of Sciences and Arts (MEASA).a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (FINAE-Foreign), a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences India (FNASI-Foreign); a Fellow of The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE), a Fellow of The American Physical Society (FAPS), a Fellow of The Electrochemical Society (FECS), a Fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS), a Fellow of The Engineering Institute of Canada (FEIC) and an Honorary Member of the World Innovation Foundation (HonMWIF) – the foundation’s highest honor.


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