At the very outset of my first year in electrical engineering, nanotechnologys promise to bring

about the next industrial revolution by engineering the properties of the Nature at atomic scale
alongside with my intellectual curiosity for the Nature down at one of the fundamental levels instilled a keen aspiration in me to explore science and engineering at the nanoscale. I remained
steadfast on this determination throughout my undergraduate studies by achieving excellence of
the highest degree in each of my three avenues: academic performance, research involvement and
leadership activities. Besides ranking first in my department and also in the university with a GPA
of 4.00/4.00 and numerous accolades in national level, I won three international awards, the 1st
prize in IEEE Asia-Pacific UG Student Paper Contest (SPC) 06, the 2nd prize in IEEE Student
History Paper Competition 04 and IEEE Enterprise Award 06. My research in computational
nanoelectronics, multi-valued logic (MVL) for quantum computing and history of science and technology was scholarly with a publication record of ten papers in nine international conferences,
including ISMVL 20071 , the most authoritative conference on MVL, SICXXVI 20072 at MIT and
Harvard and EDSSC20073 . Being selected and funded as the only UG student by the Abdus Salam
Intl Center of Theoretical Physics to attend the Advanced Workshop on Nanomaterials4 is one of
the recognitions I got for my exceptional research credentials. As a part of my leadership activities,
I served IEEE BUET Student Branch (SB) as the Secretary (2004-05) and the Chair (2005-07).
I was selected to represent our SB in IEEE R-10 Student/GOLD Congress, 06 in Beijing, China.
For my academic and leadership record, I has been nominated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Bangladesh as a prestigious Bangladesh student delegate in the forthcoming SAARC Student Exchange Program, 07 in Delhi, India. I have gained my own perception of nanotechnologys vision
through exposure to research and intellectual communities and of the world vision of leadership in
socio-technological perspectives through interaction with visionaries in National and International
arena and am confident of my research and leadership traits. Hence, I strongly feel that having
the opportunity to pursue graduate studies in science and engineering at the nanoscale towards
Ph.D. in a center of excellence like Princeton University will be the bridge between my aspirations,
achievements and training so far and my career goal of a leadership role in research and innovation
in this field.
Having developed a solid foundation on important concepts in quantum mechanics, solid state
physics and electronics through the course Electrical Engineering Materials and informal-yetpassionate-and-extensive study of texts like the Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 3, Schiffs
Quantum Mechanics, Omars Elementary Solid State Physics and Streetman & Banerjees Solid
State Electronics in my junior level, I along with my friend and co-researcher curiously delved
through research papers of our faculty members on electronics. Our self-motivated examination of
quantum confinement effects on the electrostatics of nanoscale MOS structures by developing our
own non-equilibrium Greens function formalism (NEGF) based 1-D Schrodinger-Poisson solver in
the junior level gave me my maiden insight into a quantum phenomenon in nanostructures. Our
work being awarded the 1st prize in IEEE UG SPC 06 spring-boarded my confidence to take up
harder research challenges; we decided to examine the effects of quantum mechanical tunneling of
electrons through gate oxide on ballistic drain current current in double gate MOSFETs using a 2-D
transport model as our senior year research under the supervision of Prof. Anisul Haque. Besides
taking courses like Semiconductor Devices and Optoelectronic Devices in my senior level, I took
up the venturesome task to master the most advanced concepts in quantum transport through
Dattas seminal text Quantum Transport: Atom to Transistor on my own for the research. In this
work, we have shown that gate tunneling effects on ballistic drain current are strongly influenced
by short channel effects and submission of our manuscript to J. Appl. Phys. is in the offing.
Through this guided endeavor, I received an excellent training on the art of scientific research 1

IEEE 37th Intl Symposium of Multiple Value Logic, Oslo, Norway, May 2007.
XXVI Symp. of the Scientific Instrument Commission, MIT - Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sep. 2007.
3
The 5th IEEE Conf. on Electron Devices & Solid State Circuits, Tainan, Taiwan, 20-22 Dec. 07.
4
The Advanced Workshop on in Nanomaterials: A Partnership between ICTP, ICMR and TWAS, Abdus Salam
Intl Center of Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Miramare-Trieste, Italy, 15 - 19 Jan. 2007.
2

PERSONAL STATEMENT
name:

ASIF ISLAM KHAN

dob: 30 APRIL, 1983

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dept.: ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

the art of explaining numerical results not as a mathematical or programming artifacts, rather as
physical phenomena, the art of scientific writing relying less on equations and using concepts that
are accessible to the intended audience, the exercise of analytical ability and tenacious adherence
and above all, the spirit of intellectual integrity. On the other hand, my quantum computing (QC)
research was driven by the blend of my knowledge on quantum mechanics with the background
of information science of my co-researchers from computer science discipline and hence, it was
truly an interdisciplinary experience. There being no knowledge base on QC in my university, we
started by Nielsen and Chaungs Quantum Computation & Quantum Information. Our isolation
from mainstream research community on MVL was greatly removed when we found that our paper
in ISMVL 2007 presenting the first realization of a qutrit version of Fredkin gate using ion-trap
realizable permutative gates in literature was concurrent with recent interests in this field.
Side by side with research activities, I got the training on management and leadership skills,
the training to work in and lead groups, to practice patience, personal authority and expediency
in action plans and execution through my involvement with IEEE and attending SLTW5 . The
vibrancy of our SB under my leadership was featured by The Institute, the newspaper of IEEE, in
Editor Kathy Kowalenkos article Organizing tours to technical facilities in Dec. 2005 issue, where
I as the Chair described how student activities like plant tours boosted membership recruitment
and retention rates and also career prospect of the members. Having to manage such diverse
activities, I groomed into myself personal management skills like diligence, sincerity, integrity and
time management. Hence, I feel confident that I will be able to handle and adapt into cooperative
milieu of the graduate level research and also fit into leadership roles in research and in my career.
But it was not until I attended the nanomaterial workshop at ICTP that I could appreciate
the diversity of approaches of and the excitement associated with nanotechnologies. Sessions on
chemistry of nanomaterials and concepts such as functionalization, self-assembly of nanostructures,
and chemical controllability of mechanical, electrical, optical, magnetic properties of nanomaterials
enabled me to view nanoscience from the perspective of chemists and has instilled an encouragement
in me to work in interdisciplinary nano-engineering groups in my graduate level. Being an ardent
subscriber of IEEE Xplore, Scientific American and Physics World and reader of many other
scientific monographs, I can perceive the distinctness of nanotechnologies in terms of approach and
impact on society from other most promising fields - astrophysics, neuroscience to name a few. As
I see Feynmans perception - there is plenty of room at the bottom- being reflected by quantum
computings vision for unfathomable computing power through entanglement - spintronics vision
for achieving transistor effect from spin - plasmonics vision to debut optics into nano-regime
through plasmon interactionsand through the vision of many other new fields, I feel that pursuing
graduate research in nanotechnology will a nexus of my capabilities and my passions.
In the graduate school, I would like to specialize in nano-electronic and -photonic devices and
novel device concepts. My interests are closely aligned with Prof. Chous research at the NanoStructured Laboratory-especially with his nanoelectronics research. Dr. Gmachls work on quantum electronics and Dr. Pettas (PRISM) interest in quantum information systems also inspires
me to work in their groups.
To see my sophomore grade students grasping with eagerness and amazement the ideas of
Moores law, nanosubmarines for drug delivery, top-down and bottom-up approaches from my
lectures in their first electronics course, EEE 210 with me and through my website for this course6 ,
I really feel that I have an innate capability to convey new ideas and instill a motivation in students
to venture into new concepts and to research. I believe that by being a professor in a field of nanoscience and -engineering in a research university, I would have the perfect opportunity to contribute
to further Feynmans vision not only by advancing the state of the art, but also illuminating new
avenues of thought for my students. Graduate study at Princeton University will undoubtedly give
me the opportunity towards this academic and professional goal of mine.
5
6

Student Leadership Training Workshop, IEEE R-10 Student/GOLD Congress, Beijing, China, June 15-17, 06
http://teacher.buet.ac.bd/aikhan/EEE210.htm

PERSONAL STATEMENT
name:

ASIF ISLAM KHAN

dob: 30 APRIL, 1983

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dept.: ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING