Ioannis (John) Kymissis

Thin film systems are built by depositing active materials such as semiconductors, piezoelectrics, and optical materials onto substrates to add new functionalities such as light emission, switching, sensing, and amplification. The technology and techniques used for this processing allows for the co-integration of a variety of functionalities in combinations that allow for the development of a broad range of new devices and systems. &These systems have application to displays, energy storage and conversion, mechanical and chemical sensors, and communication, unlocking new technologies that can be applied to healthcare, environmental sensing, security applications, and energy harvesting.

John’s group especially focuses on the use of thin film and polymeric piezoelectric materials, organic semiconductors, and recrystallized semiconductor materials to design and implement new devices. Applications developed by his group include new sensors for analysis of blood flow, compact spectrometers, energy autonomous sensors, and devices for high efficiency energy storage and conversion. John’s work is highly interdisciplinary and he works closely with chemists, material scientists, physicists, physicians, and other engineers both to implement a range of solutions and also study the performance of the devices and materials used to implement this new generation of electronics. He also works with several companies both to commercialize inventions from his group and to develop new devices for application in commercially relevant systems.

Kymissis received a SB, M.Eng., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1998, 1999, and 2003. Following a post-doctoral appointment at MIT and a year at QDVision, he joined the faculty at Columbia University in 2006. John has won a number of awards for his work, including the NSF CAREER award, the IEEE EDS Paul Rappaport award, the Vodaphone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Award, the MIT Clean Energy Prize, and a Verizon Powerful Answers award. He recently served a term as the editor in chief of the Journal of the Society for Information Display, and was the general chair for the 2014 Device Research Conference, and is president elect for SID. John is the co-founder of several companies based on research from his group including Chromation, Lumiode, and Radiator Labs.

Research Areas

• Analog Devices
• Communications
• Electromagnetics
• Embedded Systems
• Integrated Circuits and Systems
• Memory and Storage
• Nanoelectronics
• Photonics
• Bioelectronics
• Sensor Systems
• Wearable Electronics (Technology)
• Robotics and Automation
• Displays