The Jonsson School
Dr. Reza Moheimani

Dr. Reza Moheimani

Career Highlights

Creator of a dime-sized atomic
force microscope


Author of over 400 refereed articles
and 5 books


Other awards include:

    2022 – ASME Fellow
    2020 – ASME Charles Stark Draper Innovative Practice Award
    2018 – IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award
    2014 – IFAC Nathaniel B. Nichols Medal
    2013 – IFAC Mechatronic Systems Award
    2011 – IEEE Fellow Award
    2011 – IFAC Fellow Award
    2009 – IEEE Control Systems Technology Award
    2007 – IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award
    2007 – Institute of Physics, UK, Fellow Award
    Editor-in-Chief, Mechatronics (2016-2021)

Books Authored, Co-Authored or Edited

"Control Technologies for Emerging Micro and Nanoscale Systems," 2011; "Piezoelectric Transducers for Vibration Control and Damping," 2006; "Mechatronic Systems," 2004; "Spatial Control of Vibration: Theory and Experiments," 2003; "Perspectives in Robust Control," 2001

Education

PhD in Electrical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia

MEngSc in Electrical Engineering (Majoring in Systems and Control), University of New South Wales, Australia

BSc in Electrical Engineering, Shiraz University, Iran

Recent Patents

Methods and devices configured to operating scanning tunneling microscopes using out-of-bandwidth frequency components added to bias voltage and related software, granted 2021 by, Board of Regents, The University of Texas System

Methods, devices and systems for scanning tunneling microscopy control system design, granted 2019 by Zyvex Labs LLC, Texas, and Board of Regents, The University of Texas System

Control Systems Expert Earns Double Honors From Professional Organizations

Dr. Reza Moheimani

Dr. Reza Moheimani, PhD

Career Highlights

Creator of a dime-sized atomic force microscope

Author of over 400 refereed articles and 5 books

Other awards include
2022 – ASME Fellow
2020 – ASME Charles Stark Draper Innovative Practice Award
2018 – IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award
2014 – IFAC Nathaniel B. Nichols Medal
2013 – IFAC Mechatronic Systems Award
2011 – IEEE Fellow Award
2011 – IFAC Fellow Award
2009 – IEEE Control Systems Technology Award
2007 – IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award
2007 – Institute of Physics, UK, Fellow Award
Editor-in-Chief, Mechatronics (2016-2021)

Books Authored, Co-Authored or Edited

Control Technologies for Emerging Micro and Nanoscale Systems, 2011; Piezoelectric Transducers for Vibration Control and Damping, 2006; Mechatronic Systems, 2004; Spatial Control of Vibration: Theory and Experiments, 2003; Perspectives in Robust Control, 2001

Recent Patents

Methods and devices configured to operating scanning tunneling microscopes using out-of-bandwidth frequency components added to bias voltage and related software, granted 2021, Board of Regents, The University of Texas System
Methods, devices and systems for scanning tunneling microscopy control system design, granted 2019 Zyvex Labs LLC, Texas, and Board of Regents, The University of Texas System

Education

PhD in Electrical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia

MEngSc in Electrical Engineering (Majoring in Systems and Control), University of New South Wales, Australia

BSc in Electrical Engineering, Shiraz University, Iran

Dr. Reza Moheimani, professor of systems engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas and holder of the James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology, was recently recognized by two major professional organizations for his contributions to the development of systems for nanoscale control. The International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) awarded Moheimani its Industrial Achievement Award and The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Dynamic Systems & Control Division named Moheimani its 2022 Nyquist Lecturer.

Moheimani is a control systems researcher in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science whose research interests include quantum devices and atomic force microscopy. Since joining The University of Texas at Dallas in 2015, he has established the Laboratory for Dynamics and Control of Nanosystems as well as the Center for Atomically Precise Fabrication of Solid-State Quantum Devices (Quantum Center), a research collaboration on nanoscale engineering systems. In 2021, he was awarded a $1.1 million grant from the Department of Energy to support research commercialization efforts with Zyvex Labs, a local company that also received a $1.1 million grant.

Previously, Moheimani was a professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He also was awarded the Nathaniel B. Nichols Medal from IFAC at its 2014 World Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, so he has the rare distinction of holding two of the organization’s highest honors.

“Systems Engineering at UT Dallas has a rich and strong history of national and international award winners among its faculty, and Reza is at the top of that list,”

Dr. Stephen Yurkovich

Head of and professor in the Department of Systems Engineering, Director of the Center for Control Science and Technology and Louis Beecherl Jr. Distinguished Chair

Dr. Reza Moheimani-ASME Nyquist Lecturer

Dr. Roberto Horowitz (left) from The University of California Berkeley; ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division Honors Committee chair, and Dr. Xiaobo Tan (right) from Michigan State University, division vice chair, recognized Dr. Reza Moheimani (center) at the ASME Nyquist Lecture.

ASME Nyquist Lecture

The ASME Nyquist Lecture is awarded annually to a prominent professional in the Dynamic Systems & Control Division of ASME, and the same individual is named only once. Moheimani delivered the Nyquist Lecture at the Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference held in early October 2022.

“The ASME Nyquist Lecture is a high honor recognizing Reza’s overall contributions to the dynamic systems and control community,” Yurkovich said. “We are very proud that he is the third systems engineering faculty member at UT Dallas who has received this honor.”

“I am truly thrilled to have been selected as the 2022 Nyquist Lecturer,” Moheimani said. “Harry Nyquist is an icon in dynamic systems and control. He was a researcher who could see farther than many of his contemporaries and went on to make lasting contributions to the field. To give a lecture that is named after him is a singular accomplishment. I am grateful to the Dynamic Systems and Control Division of ASME for giving me the opportunity to be among the distinguished researchers who have given this talk in the past.”

Moheimani’s talk was based on research conducted at the Quantum Center at UT Dallas and in collaboration with industry in recent years, specifically regarding efforts to improve the performance of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) for the manufacture of silicon quantum devices.

Moheimani said, “I concentrated on the fundamental role of the STM’s feedback control system in improving accuracy, reliability and repeatability of this tool for lithography and subsequent fabrication of solid-state quantum devices with atomic precision. Many of my PhD students, postdocs and collaborators in industry contributed to the research. I am grateful for their support and contributions.”

Previous Nyquist Lecturers from UT Dallas include Dr. Mark Spong, professor of systems engineering, former dean of the Jonsson School and Excellence in Education Chair, and Dr. Mathukumalli Vidyasagar, former professor of systems engineering, former Cecil H. and Ida Green Chair in Systems Biology Science and inaugural head of the UT Dallas Department of Bioengineering.

IFAC Industrial Achievement Award

The IFAC Industrial Achievement Award is granted by the organization once every three years to a researcher who has made a significant contribution to industrial applications of control. Moheimani will be formally recognized at the opening ceremony of the upcoming IFAC World Congress in July 2023 in Yokohama, Japan.

“The prestigious IFAC Industrial Achievement Award is a testament to Reza’s practical research and close ties with industry partners over the years, and his contributions to industrial applications place him among the most accomplished researchers in our field,” Yurkovich said.

"I am deeply honored and humbled to have been selected as the recipient of the 2023 IFAC Industrial Achievement Award,” Moheimani said. “I wish to express my utmost gratitude to IFAC for this award, and I wish to thank my students, postdocs and industry collaborators who spent countless hours with me in this research program. This award is a recognition of our cumulative efforts over the past seven years, and I am grateful for their support and contributions.”

The award recognizes research performed in Moheimani’s lab including development of methods for atomically precise manufacturing of silicon quantum devices based on hydrogen depassivation lithography. The research was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Department of Energy as well as UT Dallas.

“In addition to the fundamental research that I do in my lab, I am keen to collaborate with industry partners,” Moheimani said. “These collaborations enable me to team up with researchers who have complementary skill sets and access to infrastructure and resources that I do not have in my lab to work on problems that have a bigger societal impact. These interactions with industry are also beneficial to my lab members. Students who spend time in an industry lab are exposed to realworld problems, learn unique problem-solving skills and have career prospects beyond typical graduate students.”

Moheimani continued, “I have had the good fortune of attending every triennial IFAC World Congress since 1993 in Sydney, Australia. I now have a very good reason to attend the next one in Yokohama, Japan, next July.”