Dr. Reza Moheimani
- Professor of Systems Engineering
- James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology
The James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology was a gift from James Von Ehr, who received a master’s degree from the UT Dallas School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in 1981. He is founder and CEO of Zyvex Labs and was honored by the University as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2004. He has served on numerous UT Dallas boards, including the Development Board, where he was chairman from 2005 to 2010. Von Ehr was a member of the campaign council for the Realize the Vision: The Campaign for Tier One and Beyond fundraising effort.
“UT Dallas is a young and ambitious university with clear direction, In a vibrant environment like this, more interesting things happen. People are more open to new ideas, and the desire to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries fuels growth and innovation.”
Dr. Reza Moheimani provides leadership to identify opportunities and challenges for micro- and nano-manufacturing research at a time of remarkable progress in nanotechnology.
“UT Dallas is a young and ambitious university with clear direction,” Moheimani said. “In a vibrant environment like this, more interesting things happen. People are more open to new ideas, and the desire to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries fuels growth and innovation.”
Moheimani came to UT Dallas from the University of Newcastle, Australia, where he was a professor and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) and Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom.
In Australia, Moheimani established and directed the Laboratory for Dynamics and Control of Nanosystems, a research facility dedicated to the advancement of nanotechnology through innovations in systems theory and control engineering.
He is establishing a similar laboratory and research team at UT Dallas. His work is enabled in part by a recent Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) award under the Atoms to Product Program led by Zyvex Labs.
An important aspect of Moheimani’s research is concerned with microelectromechanical systems, also known as MEMS or micro-machines. Scientists are developing these micron-sized mechatronic devices, which are fabricated from silicon, for numerous high-tech applications.
In 2009, Moheimani collaborated with researchers from the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory on a project that involved using a MEMS device to store digital information as tiny indentations on a polymer surface. The collaboration led to a control system for this device that achieved a positioning accuracy of 0.25 nm, comparable to the diameter of one atom. This accuracy enabled the team to achieve a data storage density that was considered a world record at the time.
The work earned Moheimani and his collaborators the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Control System Technology Award.
Moheimani received his doctorate and master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia. After completing his dissertation, he was hired by the Australian Defence Force Academy to work on a project involving active noise and vibration control using piezoelectric transducers. Moheimani earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Shiraz University in Iran. He is the co-author of two books: Spatial Control of Vibration and Noise: Theory and Experiments and Piezoelectric Transducers for Vibration Control and Damping. He has also edited two books: Perspectives in Robust Control and Control Technologies for Emerging Micro and Nanoscale Systems.