Enabling cutting-edge laser research and education
Bharti Temkin, lifelong educator and accomplished mathematician, has made an $80,000 gift in honor of her late husband Henryk Temkin, a former professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Colorado State University.
The donation establishes the Henryk and Bharti Temkin fund in honor of Henryk Temkin, a Rockwell-Anderson Professor of Electrical Engineering at CSU from 1992 to 1996.
The gift will provide support for laser and photonics research and education led by University Distinguished Professor Carmen Menoni, who leads fundamental advancements in the science of transparent amorphous materials and their applications to laser science and technology.
“We need to strengthen our commitment to supporting fundamental science and research for advancements in critical future technologies,” said Bharti Temkin, who retired as a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Texas Tech University. “Innovations developed by this type of basic research create open-ended opportunities for our economic and social well-being.”
Temkin added, “Research and innovation in materials science and engineering is the foundational fabric that not only allow all industries to prosper, but it also opens up opportunities for progress in many other fields of academic research, such as biology, medicine, AI, and more.”
Bharti Temkin (right) established the Henryk and Bharti Temkin fund in honor of her late husband, Henryk Temkin (left), a Rockwell-Anderson Professor of Electrical Engineering at CSU from 1992 to 1996.
Passion for Science and Mathematics: About Henryk and Bharti Temkin
Dr. Henryk Temkin, a physicist, worked at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, from 1977 to 1992, after his postdoctoral work at Cornell University, with Douglas Beach Fitchen, on advanced laser techniques of pulse and Raman spectroscopies. At Bell Laboratories, Henryk did pioneer work on novel compound semiconductor optoelectronic emitters and detectors tailored for different wavelengths of light. These devices were key in the then emerging technology of interconnections with optical fibers. Later on, in 1985, for his research in the areas of communications technology, he was awarded Bell Laboratories Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff title; this work included innovative new solid state electronic crystal growth techniques – Gas Source Molecular Beam Epitaxy which allowed precision growth of layered structures of compounds containing quaternary semiconductor materials suitable for long distance communication lasers with Nobel Prize Nominee Dr. Morton B. Panish.
In 1992, he joined Colorado State University (CSU) as the Rockwell-Anderson Professor of Electrical Engineering. In 1993 he became an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to the development of quantum-well lasers for fiberoptics communications. In 2008, he also received the IEEE Aron Kressel LEOS Award for outstanding contributions to the science of the light-emitting device creation and his leadership in advancing opto-electronic materials and device research.
After CSU, at Texas Tech University (TTU), as a Jack Maddox Distinguished Chair and the College of Engineering Horn Professor, he established the Nanotech Center – a leading hub of nitride semiconductor device development. In 2003, he spent a sabbatical year at Harvard working on nanostructures in collaboration with Prof. Narayanamurti and his students and post-doctoral fellows. During the year he co-authored a highly cited fundamental paper on the optical luminescence in ZnO nanowires which highlighted the role of surfaces states in affecting radiative properties.
In 2005, Dr. Henryk Temkin joined the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, to work as a Program Manager in the Microsystems Technology Office. He worked at DARPA till the day he passes away on March 24, 2009.
While working at DARPA, in 2008, he was presented two awards: the Bronze Secretary of Defense Award for Exceptional Public Service, and a Distinguished Service Medal, and DARPA award for his Portfolio of Outstanding Programs representing significant technological innovations and for his leadership in ultraviolet-to-infrared lasers, ultraviolet avalanche photodiodes, subwavelength lasers, and high-speed, all optical data processing using parametric processes – resulted in new core technology insights. The legacy of his programs at DARPA includes Laser Photo-Acoustic Spectroscopy (L-PAS), Parametric Optical Processes and Systems (POPS), Efficient Microwave Infrared Lasers (EMIL), Deep Ultraviolet Avalanche Photo Detector (DUVAP), and Nanoscale Architecture for Coherent Hyper-Optics Sources (NACHOS) – led to revolutionary advances in laser, detector, and communications technologies.
His work continues to make advances in the future electrooptic technology research through his 24 patents and patent applications, over 500 archival publications, and a book he edited on vertical cavity surface emitting lasers.
Dr. Bharti Temkin is a devoted educator, with more than 50 years of teaching experience from mathematics to computer science to yoga. She enjoys working with students of all ages, from kindergarten to postgraduate. Her focus in life has been to learn from and teach the younger generation, aiming on using deductive-logic and facts to tackle life scenarios objectively rather than with subjective mindset.
For her PhD in Mathematics, she solved a long-standing problem proposed to her by 1) Paul Erdos, one of the most prolific mathematicians of the 20th century, and 2) Ronald R. Graham – one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years, “On a Linear Diophantine Problem of Frobenius”.
After her PhD, she joined Bell Laboratories as a member of the technical staff, where she worked as a software system engineer on projects that included 1) Bell Laboratories’ 1991 President’s Quality award winning Enhanced Modular Signal Processing Navy’s weapon system missions projects that included advances in underwater acoustic algorithm development, 2) Designed and created “Intention vs. Buying” behavior software application, Market Analysis Database Interface System (MADIS), for AT&T large private line customers for which she was awarded AT&T Bell Laboratories 1984 Statistic Day Award, 3) Before Internet became available for general use in 1993, in late 1980s, she worked with a team of engineers that designed the critical software requirements and features for AT&T Video-Text-Project, developing the emerging foundation for all different modes of Internet communications.
While living in Fort Collins, Temkin opened a thriving yoga studio, the Columbine Yoga Center (CYC). Some of the people who came to CYC still live in the Fort Collins area. They included Dr. Jacqueline Fields, Andre Mouton – owner of Rio Grande restaurant at that time who generously gave up the space above the restaurant; Dr. Bernadette Connell of Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at CSU; Dr. Carmen Menoni, and many other CSU professionals.
Later, as a professor of Computer Science at Texas Tech University, Temkin established the Computer Haptic Surgical Simulation Center, with research aimed at creating a modular software framework for laparoscopic surgical simulations and anatomy training systems. While Henryk did his sabbatical at Harvard, Bharti did her sabbatical at MIT. She also worked at the National Library of Medicine, with the resident anatomist Dr. Donald P. Jenkins and Dr. George Thoma, in creation of an application for teaching human anatomy to medical students. This work is published in the journal of Clinical Anatomy, volume 19, November 3. 2006 on the Visible Human Projects Special Issue.
When Henryk and Bharti moved to Arlington, Virginia, for Henryk’s work with DARPA, Bharti taught her students at TTU through the distance learning technologies and subsequently she became a K-12 mathematics coach and a teacher for the Arlington Public Schools, from where she retired in 2021. Her passion for teaching and education continues as a substitute teacher, and by auditing courses at Georgetown University.