Jae Yong Suk, professor of design and director of the California Lighting Technology Center, has been named the Arthur H. Rosenfeld Chair in Energy Efficiency at the University of California, Davis. 

The endowment helps the chair holder promote the mission to develop and commercialize energy-efficient technologies, teach future leaders in energy efficiency, and conduct critical policy-supporting research.

For the students in Professor Jae Yong Suk's "Designing with Light" course, this question served as the foundation for this year’s Moodlight Challenge: Designing Luminaires for Human Well-Being. Over the span of ten weeks, 13 students engaged in rapid prototyping using paper and cardboard, eventually transitioning to CAD, laser cutting, and 3D printing to craft their final designs. The results are a celebration of diverse perspectives on well-being, expressed through luminaires inspired by nature, architecture, and the students' cultural backgrounds.

Are you full of bright ideas? UC Davis students can sign up for Professor Jae Yong Suk’s upcoming, winter-quarter class, DES 136B: Designing with Light. Students will design, build, and refine their own luminaires, then compete in the department's 16th Annual Luminaire Design Competition sponsored by Maltani Lighting. Final prototypes are presented to a panel of lighting design experts, and three winners earn all-expenses-paid trips to the 2026 IES Conference in Denver, where they’ll showcase their luminaires on a national stage.

Jae Yong Suk, an associate professor of design at the University of California, Davis, has been appointed as the new director of the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC), a research center housed in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis.

CLTC's interdisciplinary research collaboration with the Center for Mind and Brain (CMB) was recently featured on the UC Davis Instagram to spotlight The Color Lab.

Jae Yong Suk and Veronica Then, along with Sreenivasan Meyyappan from the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, were invited to CapRadio’s Insight program to discuss ongoing research about CLTC's Color Lab.

UC Davis students have a bright opportunity to push the boundaries of luminaire design in the 15th Annual Luminaire Design Competition, hosted in partnership with BuzziSpace and the California Lighting Technology Center.

As buildings embrace advanced control technologies, cybersecurity has become a top priority—especially for networked lighting systems, now woven into complex IT and operational technology networks. Traditionally, electricians have focused on hands-on electrical work, but today’s connected systems demand an expanded skill set to guard against cyber threats that can compromise entire buildings.

CLTC is excited to share the findings of a new study on Residential Energy & Automation (REA) Systems, showcasing how this innovative technology can help homeowners save energy and cut costs through the use of intelligent energy management. REA systems integrate technologies like solar panels, battery storage, and electric vehicles into smart, automated networks that optimize energy use—helping lower utility bills while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

CLTC is proud to announce the formalization of a strategic, research-focused Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Korea Photonics Technology Institute (KOPTI) to advance international collaboration in addressing the growing challenges of light pollution in North America and Asia. This partnership is set to drive innovation in smart lighting technologies and carbon-neutral solutions, with a core focus on mitigating light pollution—an issue of increasing global concern.