May 22 2025 -- Assistant Professor Chris Anderson from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded an unrestricted research gift from the Coherent/II-VI Foundation for his project, "Electrically Tunable On-chip Quantum Entanglement in Silicon Carbide Photonics."

Why it matters

The Coherent/II-VI Foundation selected Anderson's proposal for its Block-Gift award program as part of its mission "to encourage and enable students to pursue a career in engineering, science and mathematics while maintaining a standard of excellence in that pursuit." This funding will provide valuable research and professional development opportunities for two graduate students while advancing fundamental studies in generating quantum entanglement with silicon carbide semiconductor devices. This award is intended to renew for a total of three years.

The big picture

The Foundation's Selection Committee chose Professor Anderson's proposal from a pool of submissions for the 2025-2026 program cycle, which occurred by invitation only. This honor was also awarded to two other faculty from Illinois Grainger Engineering, including Associate Professor Can Bayram and Professor John Dallesasse, both from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This made up the largest contingent from any university in the country.

• The gift aims to support research while providing significant learning opportunities for participating students.
• As part of the agreement, the Foundation will conduct an on-site or virtual visit to meet with researchers and tour the facilities.
• The project continues Illinois Grainger Engineering's commitment to advancing materials science research.
• Anderson's proposal spans all four of the Block-Gift program's four Technology Focus Areas, including: optics, lasers and photonics, wideband gap power electronics, optical communications and quantum technologies.

Illinois Grainger Engineering Affiliations

Chris Anderson is an Illinois Grainger Engineering assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and is affiliated with both the Department of Physics and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is a member of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center, the Materials Research Laboratory and the Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Lab.

Can Bayram is an Illinois Grainger Engineering associate professor of electrical and computer engineering with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is affiliated with the Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Lab.

John Dallesasse is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor of electrical and computer engineering with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is affiliated with the Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Lab and holds the Gregory E. Stillman Professor appointment.