Team
Visiting Scholars | Undergraduate Researchers | Alumni
Professor Dirk Englund
Associate Professor, EECS
englund -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-525
617.324.7014--Tel
Google Scholar; Full CV; Long-form CV
Dirk Englund received his BS in Physics from Caltech in 2002. After a Fulbright fellowship at T.U. Eindhoven, he completed an MS in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Applied Physics at Stanford University in 2008. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, he joined Columbia University as Assistant Professor of E.E. and of Applied Physics. He joined the MIT EECS faculty in 2013. Recent recognitions include the 2011 PECASE, the 2011 Sloan Fellowship in Physics, the 2012 DARPA Young Faculty Award, the 2017 ACS Photonics Young Investigator Award, and the OSA's 2017 Adolph Lomb Medal, a Bose Research Fellowship in 2018, and a 2020 Humboldt Research Fellowship.
PhD (Appl. Physics), Stanford (2008)
MS (Electrical Engineering), Stanford
BS (Physics), Caltech
Dr. Ryan Hamerly
Research Scientist
rhamerly -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-537
R.H. was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1988. He graduated from Boulder High School in 2006 and received a B.S. degree from Caltech in 2010, working with Prof. Yanbei Chen on black hole mergers. In 2016 he received a Ph.D. degree in applied physics from Stanford, for work with Prof. Hideo Mabuchi on quantum control, nanophotonics, and nonlinear optics. In 2017 he was at the National Institute of Informatics (Tokyo), working with Prof. Yoshihisa Yamamoto on quantum annealing and optical computing concepts. He is currently an IC postdoctoral fellow at MIT with Prof. Dirk Englund.
PhD (Applied Physics) Stanford (2016).
BS (Physics) Caltech (2010)
Dr. Matt Trusheim
Research Scientist
mtrush -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-529
Google Scholar
MS (Applied Physics), Columbia University (2011)
BS (Applied Physics), Yale University (2010)
Andrew Birkel
Lab Operations Manager
abirkel -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-341
Andrew recieved a B.S. in physics @ RPI, has worked in various positions at MIT since 2012, Has deep roots in the hacker/maker community and has a broad range of skills (see andrewbirkel.com)
BS (Physics), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2012)
Postdoctoral Researchers
Hyeongrak Choi
Postdoctoral Researcher
choihr -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-531
BS (Electrical Engineering), Seoul National University (2014)
SM (EECS), MIT (2017)
PhD (EECS), MIT (2021)
Wenhan Dai
Postdoctoral Researcher
whdai -at- mit -dot- edu
Wenhan Dai received the B.E. degree in electronic engineering and the B.S. degree in mathematics from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2011, and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2014 and 2020, respectively. His research interests include statistical inference, network science, communication theory, and their applications to wireless communication, network localization and navigation, and quantum information science.
PhD (AeroAstro), MIT (2020)
Dr. Mohamed ElKabbash
Postdoctoral Researcher
Mohamed earned his B.A. in physics and economics from Illinois Wesleyan University and PhD in physics from Case Western Reserve University. His research background is in femtosecond laser/matter interaction, nanophotonics, plasmonics, and metamaterials. His current research focuses on developing large-scale CMOS-backed photonics, including high-speed SLMs for quantum control.
LL.B. Alexandria Law School (2007), Masters (Law & political economy) Alexandria Law School (2009)
B.A. (physics and economics) Illinois Wesleyan University (2012)
Ph.D. (physics) Case Western Reserve University (2017).
Dr. Carlos Errando Herranz
Postdoctoral Researcher
carloseh -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-517
Carlos Errando Herranz received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV, 2013), and his PhD degree in Micro and Nanosystems from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2018. He worked for a year as a postdoctoral researcher in the Quantum Nano Photonics group (KTH), and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Quantum Photonics, MIT.
Awards include the Swedish Research council Postdoctoral Fellowship, Best Student Paper Award at MEMS 2015 conference, Best Master Thesis at the Engineering School (2013), and second best thesis from the industrial engineer asociacion in Valencia (2013).
His research interests are quantum photonics, integrated photonics, and MEMS.
BS&MS (Electrical Engineering) UPV Valencia, Spain
PhD (Micro and Nanosystems) KTH Stockholm, Sweden
Artur Hermans
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Artur Hermans received his BSc degree in Engineering (Electronics and Information Technology) from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2012. Afterwards, he entered the European MSc in Photonics program during which he spent a semester at Ghent University, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the University of St Andrews, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). At EPFL, he conducted his master's thesis research in the group of Professor T. J. Kippenberg. In 2014, he joined the Photonics Research Group at Ghent University, an associated lab of imec, to work on low-temperature processed thin films of second-order nonlinear optical materials for silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits (under supervision of Professor R. Baets and Professor S. Clemmen). For this work he was awarded a PhD degree in 2019. Subsequently, he started working on III-V-on-silicon-nitride mode-locked lasers as a postdoctoral researcher in the Photonics Research Group (under supervision of Professor B. Kuyken).
BS (Engineering: Electronics and Information Technology) Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium (2012)
European MS (Photonics) Ghent University, Belgium, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, University of St Andrews, UK (2014).
PhD (Photonics Engineering) Ghent University, Belgium (2019).
Dr. Adrian Menssen
Postdoctoral Researcher
amenssen -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-519
BS (Physics) Goethe Univ., Ger (2011)
M.Sc (Physics) Goethe Univ., Ger (2014)
PhD (Physics) Univ. of Oxford, UK (2019)
Dr. Lorenzo De Santis
Postdoctoral Researcher
ldesanti -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-533
PhD (Physics), University of Paris-Saclay (2018). MS (Physics) University of Ferrara.
Dr. Sivan Trajtenberg
Postdoctoral Researcher
Room 36-535
Sivan Trajtenberg Mills recieved her BsC in Physics and Computer science from Tel Aviv Univeristy (TAU). She holds a PhD in Physics from TAU in the field of nonlinear optics, supervised by prof. Ady Arie. She was an officer in the Israeli defence forces in the field of cyber-security, and continued instructing high-school students in cyber related academic programs throughout her PhD. She has been active in promoting women in STEM. Outside the lab, she was a second-league vollyball player and referee, as well as part of a semi-proffesional classical Choir.
B.Sc. (Physics and computer science), Tel Aviv University, Israel
Ph.D (Physics) Tel Aviv University, Israel
Sri Krishna Vadlamani
Postdoctoral Researcher
srikv -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-537
Sri received a B.Tech. (with honors) in Electrical Engineering, with a minor in Physics, from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), India, in 2016. In 2021, he obtained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, under the supervision of Prof. Eli Yablonovitch, from the University of California, Berkeley. His Ph.D. work explored spectroscopic lineshape theory for tunnel transistors, and physics-based combinatorial optimization solvers.
B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) IIT Bombay, India, 2016.
Ph.D. (EECS) UC Berkeley, 2021.
PhD Students
Saumil Bandyopadhyay
PhD Student
saumilb-at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-517
Saumil received his S.B. and M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 2017 and 2018, respectively. For his work on room-temperature nanowire infrared detectors, Saumil received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Youth Award in 2013. As an undergraduate, he worked in several areas, including 2D materials at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, novel materials for receivers in free-space optical communication at Facebook's Connectivity Lab, and modeling of long-haul fiber-optic networks for the Telecom Infra Project with Facebook's Network Hardware Engineering team. For his Master's thesis, Saumil worked on frequency conversion systems for enabling distributed quantum networks with diamond color centers. Since then, his work has transitioned to silicon photonic integrated circuits for classical and quantum information processing. Before starting his PhD, Saumil worked on silicon photonics as a Senior Photonics Engineer at Elenion Technologies. Saumil is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and PhD student in the Quantum Photonics Laboratory.
SB, Electrical Science and Engineering, MIT (2017)
MEng, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT (2018)
Liane Sarah Béland Bernstein
PhD Student
lbern -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-537
Liane received her Bachelor of Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal in 2016, specializing in Photonics. There, in the groups of Profs. Frédéric Leblond and Caroline Boudoux, she worked extensively on advancing biomedical imaging techniques such as Raman spectroscopy and optical coherence tomography. Subsequently, Liane took up a summer internship at Photon Etc, where she worked on improving the signal-to-noise ratio of hyperspectral imagers. In fall 2016, Liane started her graduate work in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, where in 2018, she earned her Master of Science for “Ultrahigh-Resolution, Deep-Penetration Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography” in Prof. Andy Yun’s group. She is currently developing both theoretical descriptions as well as experimental demonstrations of optical deep neural networks in the Quantum Photonics Laboratory. Outside the lab, Liane loves to climb rocks and play the flute.
BEng (Engineering Physics), Polytechnique Montreal (2016)
MS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), MIT (2018)
Order of the White Rose Scholarship (2016)
FRQNT Doctoral Fellowship (2016-2018)
NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (2018-2021)
Eric Bersin
PhD Student
ebersin -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-535
Eric received his BA from Harvard in 2014 with a double major in {Biomedical Engineering} and {Chemistry & Physics}, working with Mikhail Lukin on nanoscale NMR. After graduating, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to work on cavity optics at Ludwig-Maximillian Univeristy of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics. Eric joined the Quantum Photonics Lab in Fall of 2015, where he is a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow, and works on large-scale characterization of defect center properties, quantum frequency down-conversion, and multi-qubit control and readout. Outside of the lab, Eric is a Resident Tutor at one of Harvard's houses, sings with the Jameson Singers choir, and works with MIT's Science Policy Initiative to promote scientifically-minded policy decisions and encourage science literacy in the broader public.
AB (Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry & Physics), Harvard (2014)
Cole Brabec
PhD Student
cbrabec -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-533
B.S. (Electrical Engineering), Caltech (2021)
Kevin Chen
PhD Student
kcchen -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-531
Kevin graduated with a B.S. degree in Applied Physics from Caltech in 2017. He began his undergraduate research with Professor Harry Atwater, working on designing spectrum-splitting photovoltaic modules. In 2016, he received the Henry Ford II Scholarship award. For his senior thesis project, he transitioned to the field of AMO physics and worked with Professor Manuel Endres on constructing 2D array of optical tweezers for trapping neutral strontium atoms. With experiences in nanofabrication and AMO, Kevin joined the Quantum Photonics Lab to work on scalable photonic systems with diamond color centers. He is currently funded by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Outside of lab, he is an avid boba drinker and a die-hard Lakers fan.
B.S. (Applied Physics), Caltech (2017)
S.M. (EECS), MIT (2019)
Ian Christen
PhD Student
ichr -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-535
Ian received his BS in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Washington. There, he worked with Professor Kai-Mei Fu on nitrogen-vacancy center quantum computation. Ian will continue similar work in the Quantum Photonics Lab.
Ian runs kinda fast.
BS (Math, Physics) University of Washington (2017)
Recipient of the QISE-NET award.
Yuqin (Sophia) Duan
PhD Student
sophiayd -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-529
Sophia received a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2019, where she worked on 2D ferroelectric material and p-bits simulation with Prof. Peide Ye and Supryio Datta. Later on, she spent a year exploring micro-robotics at Prof. Robert Wood lab, where she worked on designing robust and power-autonomous micro-bee. Inspired by the beauty of nature, Sophia joined the Quantum Photonics Lab at MIT to work on vertical cavity with artificial atom array. She is a recipient of Edwin Webster Fellowship. Outside of the lab, Sophia is a traditional/contemporary dance choreographer at MIT ADT, a classical musician, and renaissance art and Assyriology enthusiast.
B.S. (EE) Purdue University (2019)
Erik Eisenach
PhD Student
eisenach -at- mit -dot- edu
BS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), The Citadel (2015)
Connor Gerlach
PhD Student
connormg -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-541
B.S. (Applied and Engineering Physics), Cornell University (2021)
Isaac Harris
PhD Student
ibwharri -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-531
B.A.Sc. (Nanotechnology Engineering) University of Waterloo, Canada (2018)
Hugo Larocque
PhD Student
hlarocqu -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-519
Hugo completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in physics at the University of Ottawa where he worked with Ebrahim Karimi and Robert Boyd on generating and characterizing topologically structured waves. The methods that he developed there involve applications in several fields including quantum cryptography, electron microscopy, materials science, nonlinear optics, and fundamental physics. Hugo joined the Quantum Photonics Lab as a graduate student in 2018.
B.Sc. (Physics) University of Ottawa, Canada (2016).
M.Sc. (Physics) University of Ottawa, Canada (2018).
Linsen Li
PhD Student
linsenli -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-531
Linsen Li received his BS in Microelectronics from Tsinghua University in 2019. He was a gold medal winner in the 16th Asian Physics Olympiad in 2015. As an undergraduate, he was awarded the Tsinghua Presidential Award, the highest honor in Tsinghua University. He has pursued the advanced curriculum and undertaken several research projects during his undergraduate period at Tsinghua University, MIT, and Stanford University. Linsen Li is a recipient of the Analog Devices Fellowship in MIT EECS. Outside of work, he enjoys swimming, skiing, and golf.
BS (Microelectronics), Tsinghua University (2019)
Christopher Panuski
PhD Student
cpanuski -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-521
Christopher received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Physics from the United States Naval Academy in 2017. During his time at Academy, Chris worked on the development of radar signal processing algorithms as an intern at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, created digital image reconstruction techniques at the DoD Cyber Crime Center, and began initial research in photonics. His senior research thesis focused on the development of a mechanically mediated RF-to-optical transducer using integrated photonics. Following graduation, he was commissioned as a cryptologic officer in the United States Navy and, with the support of the Hertz Fellowship and the MIT Jacobs Presidential Fellowship, joined the Quantum Photonics Group as a PhD student. At MIT, he is excited to further explore integrated photonics in an effort to advance the fields of quantum cryptography, communications, and enhanced sensing.
Outside of the lab, Chris shares his passion for aviation as a volunteer flight instructor, and enjoys investigating the relationship between leadership and innovation in technical organizations.
BS (Electrical Engineering and Physics), United States Naval Academy (2017)
Mihika Prabhu
PhD Student
mihika -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-521
SB (Electrical Engineering), MIT (2015)
SB (Physics), MIT (2015)
Thomas Propson
PhD Student
tpropson -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-523
Thomas received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago in 2021. There, under the guidance of Fred Chong, he developed techniques for improving the performance of quantum algorithms on NISQ devices. He completed his senior thesis in the lab of David Schuster, where he developed a numerical optimization protocol for making quantum gates robust to control imperfections and applied it to fluxonium-type superconducting circuits. For his undergraduate work, Thomas was awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and a full-tuition scholarship for his senior year from the UChicago Physics Department. Following graduation, he joined the Quantum Photonics Group at MIT as a Ph.D. student with the support of the NSFGRFP and the MIT Jacobs Presidential Fellowship. At MIT, Thomas is excited to develop photonic technologies for controlling quantum devices.
B.A. (Physics), University of Chicago (2021)
Hamza Raniwala
PhD Student
raniwala -at- mit -dot- edu
B.S. (Applied Physics) California Institute of Technology (2020)
Alex Sludds
PhD Student
asludds -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-537
Alex received his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2018. His research interests include the application of optics to data management and access for computation as well as novel techniques for interfacing CMOS and Photonic Systems.
BS (EECS) MIT 2018
Cassie (Yixuan) Song
PhD Student
yixuans -at- mit -dot- edu
Room 36-533
M.Eng (Materials Science), University of Oxford (2021)
Masters Researchers
Visiting Scholars
Jasvith Raj Basani
Visiting Scholar
B.E (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus
Mark Dong
Visiting Scholar
markdong -at- mit -dot- edu
Mark earned his B.S. from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in EECS. His research, both theoretical and experimental, covers a broad range of topics including nonlinear optics in fibers, semiconductor laser physics, device fabrication, and optical frequency comb metrology. He has received several Rackham research awards from UM, a Graduate Student Instructor of the Year award, and was a finalist for the Carl E. Anderson Dissertation Award. Currently, he is working in a collaboration between MITRE and MIT on quantum information processing in photonic integrated circuits.
B.S. (Applied Physics & EE) Cornell University (2012)
M.S. (EECS) University of Michigan (2013)
Ph.D. (EECS) University of Michigan (2018)
Undergraduate Researchers
Alumni
Postdoctoral Alumni
Jiabao Zheng
PhD, 2017
Currently a Nokia Senior Technical Staff.
Google Scholar
MS (Electrical Engineering), Columbia University (2013)
BS (Applied Physics), Northwestern Polytechnical University (2012)
Gabriele Grosso
Currently Assistant Professor at CUNY
Google Scholar
PhD (Physics) École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
MSc (Physics) University of Padua
Frédéric Peyskens
Currently a Senior Research Scientist at QuEra Computing Inc.
Google Scholar
PhD (Photonics Engineering), Ghent University (2016)
MSc (Engineering Physics), Ghent University (2011)
Dr. Chitraleema Chakraborty
Postdoctoral Researcher
Currently an Assistant Professor at University of Delaware.
MS (Nanophysics and Nanostructructures) Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France
PhD (Materials Science), University of Rochester, NY, USA (2018).
PhD Alumni
Ren-Jye Shiue
PhD 2017
Currently at Analog Photonics
Google Scholar
MS (EE) Columbia University
MS (EE) National Taiwan University
BS (Physics) National Taiwan University
Catherine Lee
PhD, 2017
Currently a Technical Staff at Lincoln Laboratory.
Google Scholar
MA (Physics), Columbia University (2013)
BA (Physics), Wellesley College
Mihir Pant
PhD, 2017
Currently a Scientist at Psi Quantum.
BEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering), NTU
Sara Mouradian
PhD 2018
Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at UC Berkeley
Google Scholar
MEng (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), MIT (2011)
BS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), MIT (2010)
Nicholas C. Harris
PhD 2017
Currently CEO and Founder of Lightmatter
Google Scholar
MSc (Electrical Engineering), University of Washington
BSc (Electrical Engineering), University of Idaho
Greg Steinbrecher
PhD 2018
Currently a Research Scientist at Facebook
Google Scholar
MEng (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), MIT (2013)
SB (Physics and Electrical Engineering), MIT (2012)
Donggyu Kim
PhD 2018
Currently a Senior Research Scientist at QuEra Computing Inc.
MS (Physics), Korea University (2013)
BS (Physics), Korea University (2011)
Darius Bunandar
PhD, 2019
Currently a Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at LightMatter.
BS (Physics), The University of Texas at Austin (2013)
BS (Mechanical Engineering), The University of Texas at Austin (2013)
Cheng Peng
PhD, 2020
Currently at Apple Inc.
BA (Mathematics), Cornell University (2013)
BA (Physics), Cornell University (2013)
Michael Walsh
PhD, 2020
Currently a Research Scientist at HRL Laboratories.
BS (Physics), MIT (2013)
BS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), MIT (2013)
Evan Walsh
PhD 2020
Currently a Senior Research Scientist at Systems & Technology Research
SM (Applied Physics), Harvard University (2014)
BS (Engineering Physics), Cornell University (2011)
Hyowon Moon
PhD (2021)
MS (EECS), Seoul National University (2012)
BS (EE), Seoul National University (2010)
Dedicated Undergraduate Alumni
Visiting Scholar Alumni
Xuetao Gan
Rui Tang
Visiting Student
M.S. (Communication Engineering) Tohoku University, Japan (2015)
B.S. (Information Engineering) Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China (2013)