Peter H. Siegel

Visiting Associate: Engineering and Applied Science
Senior Scientist Emeritus: Division of Biology (11 years)
Senior Research Scientist:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (26 years)
Founder: JPL Submillimeter Wave Advanced Technology (SWAT)

Founder/CEO of THz Global, an international collaborative research consulting team working on a wide variety of THz research and applications

Founder and Current Elected General Secretary
International Society of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves
(IRMMW-THz)

Founding Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on
Terahertz Science and Technology

B.A. Astronomy, 1976, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
M.S. Physics, 1978, Columbia University, NY
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, 1983, Columbia University, NY
Nat. Res. Council Post-Doctoral Fellow, 1984, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Email contact phs AT caltech DOT edu

Research in Millimeter-, Submillimeter-Wave and Terahertz Technology and Applications: Earth and Space Science, Biology, Medicine, Defense and related Civilian opportunities

To view Dr. Siegel's current research and his former research group .

Link to the International Society of Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves

Link to the Kenneth J Button Prize Nomination Form

Link to the IRMMW-THz Society Young Scientist Award Form

Link to 39th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves held at University of Arizona, Tucson from September 14th-19th, 2014.

Link to 33rd International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves held at Caltech from September 15-19, 2008.

Link to IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology   THZ Journal
   

Background and Philosophy: Dr. Siegel’s research specializes in the invention, development and delivery of a wide range of specialized sensor and source devices, components, and instruments spanning the frequency range between 30 and 10,000 GHz which includes the millimeter, submillimeter and far infrared wavelength regimes: the terahertz bands. Emphasis is placed on a cross disciplinary approach which brings together a diverse range of backgrounds and skills that can be directly applied towards progress in bridging the electronic and optical regimes, one of the last remaining technology gaps in the electromagnetic spectrum. Students and staff working with Dr. Siegel have included electrical engineers, physicists, biologists and chemists from a wide range of backgrounds and countries. Research work has been conducted both at Caltech and at the nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the emphasis is on Earth, space science and planetary applications of THz technology. Dr. Siegel has recently founded a small international consulting company, THz Global, through which he is continuing his THz research work in collaboration with an international team of colleagues with expertise that spans the full range of millimeter and submillimeter wave applications.

Over a 26 year period, Dr. Siegel and his Submillimeter Wave Advanced Technology team at JPL and Caltech developed and delivered critical sensor hardware for four space flight missions: NASA’s Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite Microwave Limb Sounder, the first instrument to directly measure the anti-correlation between chlorine monoxide build up and ozone depletion on a global scale; NASA’s Earth Observing System Aura Microwave Limb Sounder measuring a wide range of stratospheric molecular species involved in ozone depletion, global water distribution, climate change and pollution monitoring across the Earth and carrying the first THz heterodyne radiometer in space - 2.5 THz OH and water line receiver; the European Space Agency’s Microwave Instrument on the Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO), that rendezvoused with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko and that measured nuclear temperature and out gassing rates of carbon monoxide, water, ammonia and methanol; and most recently the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) on the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Telescope, an extremely successful astrophysics mission recording thousands of molecular signatures between 300 and 1900 GHz in and around star forming regions and in external galaxies, to better understand the composition and evolution of the universe.

In addition to Earth, planetary and space science, Dr. Siegel is interested in terrestrial applications of terahertz imaging and spectroscopy and has been actively pursuing several related initiatives in the health and biological sciences at Caltech as well as defense and security applications at both Caltech and JPL. The very first National Institute of Health program in the terahertz field, granted to Dr. Siegel in 2002, had the goal of developing high signal-to-noise imaging and spectroscopy instruments for disease diagnostics. A second THz NIH program to develop low loss terahertz waveguide for endoscopy applications has also been completed. Additional work on the thermal and non- thermal effects of millimeter and submillimeter-wave radiation on cellular systems was started in 2008. This work was undertaken in conjunction with the Caltech biology division and a neurophysiologist, Dr. Victor Pikov, then at the Huntington Medical Research Institute in Pasadena, California. Significant expansion of the biological science work at Caltech included work on rats, leeches, zebra fish and oocytes to look at low power millimeter-wave stimulation and control of neuronal responses, which included a collaboration with Francisco Bezanilla and Michael Priest at Univ. of Chicago and Mikhail Shapiro, now at Caltech. Most recently work has focused on the use of millimeter waves for direct medical applications. Three ongoing tasks include non-invasive glucose monitoring using millimeter-wave transmission; non-invasive determination of blood bag spoilage (a collaboration with Yuri Feldman and colleagues at Hebrew University); a program to incorporate and utilize millimeter-wave hyperthermia in a commercial MRI system (a past collaboration with HMRI), and a new program to look at effects of 5G frequencies on tissue heating, with Dr. David Gultekin at Columbia University.

Facilities:

Dr. Siegel is now working out of a small laboratory in La Canada, CA - THz Global - where he has a well-equipped bio-RF facility with epi-fluorescence inverted and upright microscopes, incubators and cell cultivation and measurement systems, and a wide range of RF electronic and mechanical design, assembly and applications components and instruments. Dr. Siegel regularly accesses and frequently consults with former colleagues and friends from the JPL Submillimeter-Wave Advanced Technology team, which he founded in 1992, and which is currently managed by Dr. Imran Mehdi.

Recent and review papers describing current work: