Shin-Shem Steven Pei received a BS degree in Physics from the National Taiwan University, China in 1970 and a Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1978. Dr. Pei joint the UH faculty in 1994 as a Professor and Associate Director for Research of Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center (SVEC), a NASA Center for Space Commercialization. He is also serving on the Tenure and Promotion Committee of the Cullen College of Engineering.

Prior to joining UH, Dr. Pei was the Head of the Materials and Processing Research Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ and was responsible of the R&D of a wide range of optoelectronic technologies and led the technology transfer to the DARPA GaAs pilot production line in 1985. He also served as an Associated Editor of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices from 1987 to 1990. He has published and lectured on a variety of semiconductor and superconducting devices and materials. Five patents on various optoelectronics technologies have been awarded to him.