webcast2008 Finalist :: Martin Schubert
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Bio 
PhotoMartin Schubert
Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering
Martin Schubert’s innovation could change the way you see the world—literally. Schubert has created the first-ever polarized light-emitting diode (LED). His innovation could quickly revolutionize liquid crystal display (LCD) screens on everything from computer monitors and televisions to medical imaging devices and iPods, giving us clearer, more vibrant images in an environmentally safe way.
Over the past decade, LCDs have become commonplace. They show us who texted us on our cell phones, e-mailed us on our computers, and lost the big game on our televisions. At the same time, breakthroughs have also been made in the field of LEDs. Efficient and ecological LEDs are quickly replacing traditional fluorescent lights in many technologies. The invention of the first truly polarized LED could make Schubert a pioneer in the effort to combine the power and environmental soundness of LEDs with the beauty and clarity of LCDs.
Schubert’s polarized LED advances current LED technology in its ability to better control the direction and polarization of the light being emitted. With better control over the light, less energy is wasted producing scattered light and more light reaches its desired subject. This makes the polarized LED perfectly suited as a backlighting unit for any kind of LCD. Its focused light will produce images on the display that are more colorful, more vibrant, and lifelike, and have no motion artifacts.
In his creation of the polarized LED, Schubert first discovered that traditional LEDs actually produce polarized light, but existing LEDs did not capitalize on the light’s polarization. Armed with this information, Schubert devised an optics set up around the LED chip, to enhance the polarization, creating the first truly polarized LED.
Schubert’s polarized LED could become commonplace in televisions and monitors around the world, replacing widely used fluorescent lights that are less efficient and laden in dangerous, toxic mercury. His innovation could also be used for street lighting, high-contrast imaging, sensing, and free-space optics.
His discoveries and their significance have already been widely recognized by the greater scientific community. His research on polarized LEDs has led to three peer-reviewed, archival papers on the topic and several patent applications. In addition, Schubert is co-author of 15 other papers on his related research, including a paper in one of the top journals in his field, Nature Photonics.
Schubert was born in Germany and grew up in New Jersey and later the Boston area. He was inspired early on by some dedicated high school math and science teachers to pursue a career in engineering. He received his bachelor’s from Cornell University in 2004 and master’s in 2005, both in electrical engineering, and was set to pursue a career in computer chip development. But, as fate would have it, the young engineer would develop an extreme talent for the same field of study as his father, renowned lighting research expert and senior chair of the Rensselaer Future Chips Constellation, E. Fred Schubert. The younger Schubert, who never even considered the idea of working with his father, now shows extreme independent talent as a member of his father’s research team. His discovery of the first polarized LED has astounded even his father.
Schubert is expected to complete his doctorate in electrical engineering this fall. After graduation he plans to pursue a career in semiconductor devices and photonics.
