Ioannis (John) Kymissis, the Kenneth Brayer Professor of Electrical Engineering and vice dean of Infrastructure and Innovation at Columbia Engineering, has been recently named a fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. This distinction recognizes Kymissis’s pioneering research in thin-film electronics, particularly their application in sensors, displays, and spectroscopy, as well as his service to SPIE and the broader photonics community.
Kymissis joins 46 other accomplished leaders as part of the 2025 SPIE fellows, a group celebrated for their exceptional technical achievements and significant contributions to advancing the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics, and imaging. Since its founding in 1955, SPIE has honored over 1,800 Members as Fellows.
“I am deeply honored to be recognized as a fellow of SPIE,” Kymissis said. “I am especially thankful for the hard work by my students, post-docs, and collaborators that are also recognized by this award.”
At Columbia, Kymissis leads the Laboratory for Unconventional Electronics (CLUE), where his team explores the processing, integration, and application of thin-film electronics. His groundbreaking research has spanned areas such as piezoelectric polymers for pressure sensing, energy harvesting, and microphones; printed devices for chemical and radiation detection; and co-integrated piezoelectric thin films for radio frequency filtering and infrared radiation detection.
Kymissis’s innovations in display technologies—including backplane designs for OLED, QDLED, and microLED displays—have achieved notable industry adoption. Beyond the lab, he has shepherded several technologies from concept to commercialization, founding ventures like Chromation, Lumiode, and Kelvin (the former Radiator Labs).
This latest honor complements a distinguished career marked by numerous accolades, including election as a Fellow of IEEE and the National Academy of Inventors in 2024.
The complete list of the 2025 SPIE Fellows is available on the SPIE website, along with details about the nomination process and criteria.
