Prof. M. Selim Ünlü was born in Sinop, Turkey, in 1964. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1986, and the M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1988 and 1992, respectively.

In 1992, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, as an Assistant Professor, and he has been a Professor since 2003. In 2014, he was promoted to Distinguished Professor of Engineering – as one of only five faculty members in the College of Engineering. He held visiting positions at Optoelectronics Department, University of Ulm, Germany (January – June 2000), at Quantum Photonics Group, ETH Zürich, Switzerland (September – December 2006), at EPFL Switzerland (June 2014), and at Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey (January – June 2007 and 2003-14). In 2008, he started Zoíray Technology Inc., and served as a director for 3 years. In 2019, he started iRiS Kinetics Inc., and serves as the President and CEO.
Dr. Ünlü's career interest is in optoelectronics, biophotonics and nanophotonics. His current specific interests and expertise include:

• nano-optics, high-resolution and solid immersion lens microscopy, subsurface imaging of semiconductor devices and circuits.
• biophotonics, biosensor fabrication and development of biological imaging techniques.

During 1994-1995, Dr. Ünlü served as the Chair of IEEE Laser and Electro-Optics Society, Boston Chapter, winning the LEOS Chapter-of-the-Year Award. He served as the vice president of SPIE New England Chapter in 1998–1999. He was awarded National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award in 1993, United Nations TOKTEN award in 1995 and 1996, and both the National Science Foundation CAREER and Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Awards in 1996. Dr. Ünlü has been selected as a LEOS Distinguished Lecturer for 2005-2007 and Australian Research Council Nanotechnology Network (ARCNN) Distinguished Lecturer for 2007. He has been elevated to IEEE Fellow rank in 2007 for his “contributions to optoelectronic devices” and OSA Fellow rank in 2017 for his “for pioneering contributions in utilization of optical interference in enhanced photodetectors and biological sensing and imaging.” In 2008, he was awarded the Science Award (Özel Ödül) by the Turkish Scientific Foundation. In 2020, he was inducted The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows. At Boston University, he received College of Engineering Faculty Service Award in 2006, Charles DeLisi Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2016 and Innovator of the Year Award in 2021.

Dr. Ünlü is a recognized expert on photodetectors and nanophotonics. He has presented hundreds of invited talks at conferences, departmental colloquia and other research institutions and participated in international conference organizations. Dr. Ünlü has authored and co-authored over 250 journal articles (h-index of 59) and 11 book chapters and several magazine articles; edited one book; holds 20 US/international patents; and has several patents pending. He has served as the chair of the IEEE Photonics Society technical subcommittee on Photodetectors and Imaging, as the founding chair of Nanophotonics, and chair of Biophotonics. He served as the Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics (2011-2014). He was the general chair for IEEE Photonics Society Annual Meeting in 2009.

Dr. Ünlü's career goal is to continue active participation in advanced research and development in a broad range of academic areas, in particular science and engineering working in an intellectually challenging environment that will allow him to utilize his broad expertise and skills to demonstrate his full potential.