Alfred Yi Cho (Chinese:卓以和;pinyin:Zhuó Yǐhé; born July 10, 1937^[1]) is a Chinese-American electrical engineer, inventor, and optical engineer. He is the Adjunct Vice President of Semiconductor Research at Alcatel-Lucent'sBell Labs. He is known as the "father ofmolecular beam epitaxy"; a technique he developed at that facility in the late 1960s. He is also the co-inventor, withFederico Capasso ofquantum cascade lasers at Bell Labs in 1994.

Cho was elected a member of theNational Academy of Engineering in (1985) for his pioneering development of a molecular beam epitaxy technique, leading to unique semiconductor layer device structures.

Cho was born inBeiping. He went to Hong Kong in 1949 and had his secondary education inPui Ching Middle School there. Cho holds B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from theUniversity of Illinois. He joined Bell Labs in 1968. He is a member of theNational Academy of Sciences^[2] and the National Academy of Engineering, as well as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, theAmerican Philosophical Society,^[3] and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[4]

In June 2007 he was honoured with the U.S.National Medal of Technology, the highest honor awarded by the President of the United States for technological innovation.^[5]

Cho received the award for his contributions to the invention of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and his work to commercialize the process.

He already has many awards to his name, including: the American Physical Society'sInternational Prize for New Materials in 1982, the Solid State Science and Technology Medal of the Electrochemical Society in 1987, the World Materials Congress Award of ASM International in 1988, the Gaede-Langmuir Award of the American Vacuum Society in 1988, theIRI Achievement Award of theIndustrial Research Institute in 1988,^[6] the New Jersey Governor's Thomas Alva Edison Science Award in 1990, the International Crystal Growth Award of the American Association for Crystal Growth in 1990, theNational Medal of Science in 1993,^[7] theVon Hippel Award of theMaterials Research Society in 1994, theElliott Cresson Medal of theFranklin Institute in 1995, the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1994, and the Computers & Communications Prize of the C&C Foundation, Japan in 1995.In 2009, he was inducted into theNational Inventors Hall of Fame.^[8]

In 1985, Bell Labs became the first organization to be honoured with a U.S. Medal of Technology, awarded for “contributions over decades to modern communications systems.” Cho's honour marks the eighth time Bell Labs and its scientists have received the award.

Cho is married and has one son and three daughters.

• 1991 -Molecular beam epitaxy, from basic research to device fabrication Lecture sponsored by the Dept. of Electrical and Computer engineering, University of California, San Diego. Electrical and Computer Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series. Digital object made available by UC San Diego Library.

• IEEE History Center
• New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame, 1997 Inductees
• Scientists Demo Hi-Power, Multi-Channel Semiconductor Laser
• Bell Labs researchers build world's first high-performance, ultra-broadband semiconductor laser

• 1937 births
• Living people
• 20th-century American inventors
• 21st-century American inventors
• American electrical engineers
• Refugees of the Chinese Civil War
• Chinese emigrants to the United States
• Engineers from Beijing
• Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Fellows of the American Physical Society
• Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Grainger College of Engineering alumni
• IEEE Medal of Honor recipients
• Members of the American Philosophical Society
• Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• National Medal of Science laureates
• National Medal of Technology recipients
• American optical engineers
• Scientists from Beijing
• Scientists at Bell Labs
• Semiconductor device fabrication

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