Steve Blair portrait
  • Professor, Elect & Computer Engineering
  • Director, Engineering Clinic Program
  • Adjunct Professor, Physics And Astronomy
  • Adjunct Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Professional Service

  • SPIE. Program Committee, UV and Higher Energy Photonics: From Materials to Applications 2023. 01/01/2023 - 08/22/2023
  • SPIE. Role: Program Committee. Optics + Photonics: UV and Higher Energy Photonics: From Materials to Applications 2021. Scholarly Service. 01/01/2021 - present
  • SPIE. Role: Program Committee. Optics + Photonics: UV and Higher Energy Photonics: From Materials to Applications 2020. Scholarly Service. 01/01/2020 - 08/16/2020
  • NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada). Role: reviewer. Review proposal for Industrial Research Chair - Regular (IRC) "NSERC/HBI Chair in Optical Technologies for Neurosurgery," Laval University . 04/05/2019 - 04/08/2019
  • SPIE. Role: Program Committee. Optics + Photonics: UV and Higher Energy Photonics: From Materials to Applications 2019. Scholarly Service. 01/01/2019 - 08/16/2019
  • NIH. Role: Panel reviewer. Review panel CMT 2019/05. 01/01/2019 - 02/21/2019
  • SPIE. Role: Program Committee. Optics + Photonics: UV and Higher Energy Photonics: From Materials to Applications 2018. 01/01/2018 - 08/19/2018
  • NIH. Role: Panel reviewer. Review panel, BRAIN R01 2017 (ZRG1 IFCN-T(50)), June 1-2, 2017. 05/01/2017 - 06/02/2017
  • NIH. Role: Panel reviewer. Review panel BRAIN R21 (ZEY1 VSN (05)), March 24, 2017. 02/01/2017 - 03/24/2017
  • SPIE. Role: Program Committee. Optics + Photonics: UV and Higher Energy Photonics: From Materials to Applications 2017. 01/02/2017 - 08/06/2017
  • NIH. Role: reviewer. Panel, BRAIN ZEY1 VSN, June 23, 2016. 06/09/2016 - 06/23/2016
  • National Science Foundation. Role: Member. Site review team, University of Arizona ERC - Center for Integrated Access Networks. 05/13/2014 - 05/15/2014
  • Select BioScience. Advisory Board, Point of Care Diagnostics World Congress, Lab on a Chip. 03/2014 - 09/30/2015
  • Surface Plasmon Photonics 6. Scientific and Technical Program Committee. 04/2012 - 06/2013
  • SPIE. Role: Program Committee, Session Organizer. Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems and Applications III, Orlando, Fl., April 25-29, 2011; organized “Nanophotonics” session. 06/2010 - 03/2011
  • NIH. Role: panelist. ZRG1 IMST-G study section. 11/05/2009 - 11/06/2009
  • OSA. Role: Session Chair. Photonic crystals and periodic nanomaterials, Nonlinear Optics, Honolulu HI, July 13-17, 2009. 07/13/2009 - 2009
  • SPIE. Role: organized “Nanophotonics” session. Program Committee, Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems and Applications II, Orlando, Fl., April 5-9, 2010. 06/01/2009 - 05/09/2010
  • SPIE. Role: Program committe, organized "Nanophotonics" session. Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems and Applications II, SPIE Defense & Security, Orlando, Fl., April 5-9, 2010. 2009 - 2010
  • NanoUtah. Conference organizing committee. 2009 - 2009
  • National Science Foundation. Role: Participant. Global Engineering Summit, Newport RI Nov. 5-6. The summit produced a report on the impact of globalization on the practice/teaching of engineering. 11/05/2008 - 2008
  • NSF. Role: panelist. EPDT review panel. 01/14/2008 - 01/15/2008
  • SPIE. Role: Program committee. Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems and Applications, SPIE Defense & Security, Orlando, FL April 13-17, 2009. 2008 - 2009
  • NSF. Role: participant. International research and education in engineering. 10/29/2007 - 10/30/2007
  • Advances in Optical Technology. Associate Editor. 2007 - 2009
  • SPIE. Role: Program committee. Micro (MEMS) and Nanotechnologies for Space, Defense, SPIE Defense & Security, Orlando FL March 16-20, 2008. 2007 - 2008
  • JCIS. General Chair, "5th Symposium on Photonics, Networking, and Computing," part of the 10th Joint Conference on Information Sciences, July 17-19, 2007, Salt Lake City, UT. 5th Symposium on Photonics, 07/2007. 10/2006 - 07/2007
  • Optical Society of America. Role: Program Committee. 2nd Annual Topical Meeting on Nanophotonics. 01/01/2006 - 04/28/2006

Internal Service

  • Marketing Committee. Member, 07/01/2014 - 12/31/2017. Department service.
  • Faculty Search Committee. Member, 08/01/2011 - 04/2012. Department service.
  • Workshop on Equipment Funding Opportunities (with Dawn Thorne, Cindy Furse, Jerry Kaplan). Presenter, 05/11/2011 - 05/11/2011. University service.
  • Marketing Committee. Chair, 01/01/2011 - 06/30/2013. Department service.
  • Microfab executive committee. 2006 - present. University service.
  • Director, Engineering Clinic Program. 01/01/2006 - present. Department service.

Honors & Awards

  • Associate Editor. Advances in Optical Technology, 07/2006
  • Co-editor (with Ajay Nahata) of Optics Express focus issue on "Extraordinary light transmission through sub-wavelength structured surfaces," Vol 12, No. 16, 2004. Optics Express, 07/2004
  • CAREER Award. NSF, 07/2002
  • Biomedical research grant for young investigators. Whitaker Foundation, 07/2001
  • Young Investigator Program grant recipient. ARO, 07/2000
  • Elected Fellow. SPIE, 01/05/2022
  • Elected Senior Member. SPIE, 01/06/2015
  • Faculty Entrepreneurial Scholars. 09/2014
  • Elected Senior Member. Optical Society of America, 05/2011

Community Partnership

  • Career Day speaker for Butler Middle School. 01/13/2015 - 01/13/2015
  • Coach FLL Lego Robotics team, "Robo Squad," Canyon's School District. 07/01/2013 - 01/15/2014
  • Lego Robotics demonstration for Canyon's School District STEM Gala. 04/25/2013 - 04/25/2013
  • Coach FLL Lego Robotics team, "Robo Squad," Canyon's School District. 07/01/2012 - 01/15/2013

Outreach

  • Panelist, Meet an Inventor Night, 9th-12th grade. 02/25/2016 - 02/25/2016
  • Presented optics workshop to 6th grade science teachers, Granite School District, MRSEC outreach activity. 11/01/2012 - 11/01/2012

In the Media

  • Coverage of Neurophotonics 6, 035010 (2019) paper SPIE Press Release: http://spie.org/about-spie/press-room/press-releases/new-optical- array-multisite-stimulator-advances-optogenetics SPIE News: http://spie.org/news/led-implant-illuminates-the-future-for-optogenetics- Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190828115235.htm AAAS EurekAlert!: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub releases/2019-08/ssfo-noa082819.php. 08/2019.
  • "A 3D glass optrode array for optical neural stimulation," OSA Spotlight on Optics. 01/29/2013. http://www.opticsinfobase.org/spotlight/summary.cf...
  • Press coverage of development of therapeutic glasses for photophobia and migraine. Edited version of the KSL piece ran nationally across NBC affiliates. Stories ran in the Deseret News and Utah Daily Chronicle. 01/2013. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=23812675
  • "3D waveguide array for optogenetic neuronal stimulation," Openoptogenetics.org. This article highlights the penetrating optical neural probe array from the 2012 Biomedical Optics Express paper. 11/03/2012. http://openoptogeneticsblog.org/?p=383
  • “Salt Lake City Bioscience to Sell ‘Real-Time Microarrays’ Made by U of Utah,” Justin Petrone, GenomeWeb Daily News, Sept. 6, 2011. 09/06/2011. http://www.genomeweb.com/arrays/salt-lake-city-bio...