Optics, Photonics & Laser

Prof. Ahmet ALTUNCU has completed his Ph.D. degree from University of Essex in 1998. He is a full professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in Kütahya Dumlupınar University in Turkey since 1998. He is also the Director of Photonics Technologies Application and Research Center. His research interests are novel erbium doped fiber amplifier designs for broadband optical communication systems, wideband wavelength tunable fiber ring lasers and fiber optical sensor systems. He has published more than 50 international journal and conference papers on fiber optical based communication and sensor system applications.

Ephraim Suhir is on the faculty of the Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA, Technical University, Vienna, Austria and James Cook University, Queensland, Australia. He is also CEO of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) ERS Co. in Los Altos, CA, USA, is Foreign Full Member (Academician) of the National Academy of Engineering, Ukraine (he was born in that country); Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society of Optical Engineers (SPIE), and the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS); Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the Institute of Physics (IoP), UK, and the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE); and Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Ephraim has authored 400+ publications (patents, technical papers, book chapters, books), presented numerous keynote and invited talks worldwide, and received many professional awards, including 1996 Bell Laboratories Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) Award (for developing effective methods for predicting the reliability of complex structures used in AT&T and Lucent Technologies products), and 2004 ASME Worcester Read Warner Medal (for outstanding contributions to the permanent literature of engineering and laying the foundation of a new discipline “Structural Analysis of Electronic Systems”).

Dr. Elias Sakellis received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Physics, University of Athens. Since then he works as associate researcher at the Department of Physics of the University of Athens and at the National Center for Scientific Research DEMOKRITOS, Athens, Greece. His current research interests include the synthesis of nano-structured materials with E-beam PVD, chemical and electrochemical methods as well as the study of their structural, electrical and optical properties. He is the author of more than 45 research papers with more than 340 citations. He has extended experience in electrical measurements of various materials, as well as, an expertise in structural, crystallographical and electronic configuration characterization of nanostructures -including nanoparticles- with scanning electron transmission microscopy (SEM) electron microscopy (TEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD).

Manijeh Razeghi joined Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, as a Walter P. Murphy Professor and Director of the Center for Quantum Devices in Fall 1991, where she created the undergraduate and graduate program in solid-state engineering. She is one of the leading scientists in the field of semiconductor science and technology, pioneering in the development and implementation of major modern epitaxial techniques. Her current research interest is in nanoscale optoelectronic quantum devices. She has authored or coauthored more than 1000 papers, more than 31 book chapters, and 18 books. She holds 55 U.S. patents and has given more than 1000 invited and plenary talks. She received the IBM Europe Science and Technology Prize in 1987, the Achievement Award from the SWE in 1995, the R.F. Bunshah Award in 2004 and many best paper awards. Dr. Razeghi is an elected Fellow of SWE (1995), SPIE (2000), IEC (2003), OSA (2004), APS (2004) IOP (2005), IEEE (2005) and MRS (2008). And IBM teacher of excellence 2013, and the 2016 Jan Czochralski Award. She is editor , associate, and Board member of many journals, including Nano Science and Nano technology.

Dr. Alex Kazemi a Boeing Associate Technical Fellow and materials scientist has worked for aerospace industry for past 20 years. He currently is focusing on the development of a new generation of optical fibers for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Alex is a world recognized Micro Technologist with focus on fiber optics, miniaturized interconnects, leak detection systems, fiber optic sensors for cryogenics environment, and laser micro packaging. He is regarded as the leading expert in these areas by industry and academia, including US and European aerospace agencies. He is regularly sought as an expert on fiber optics, fiber optic chemical sensors and components, throughout the Boeing Co. At BCA, he is developing a new novel state-of-the-art fiber optic flexible circuits (wall fiber) to replace copper cables for airplanes with projected weight saving of 70% per meter with cost savings of almost an order of magnitude over wire replacement expenses. At BDS, he has performed pioneering work for Boeing EELV by successfully demonstrating world’s 1st fiber optic hydrogen leak detection system during Delta IV rocket engine test at NASA/Stennis. Before beginning his career in industry, he spent several years teaching at USC. Followed by 10 years working for telecommunications and fiber optic sensors/MEMS industry. He has authored/edited 8 books in the area of Photonics and Fiber Optics plus published over 40 papers in international journals. He has received Boeing and worldwide recognition for development of H2 leak detection sensor system for rocket engines. He has received numerous industry prizes and patents.

Dr. Douglas R McCarter, Dhc, is the Technical Integrator of McCarter Machine & Technology Inc. , founded in 1981. McCarter’s patented and proprietary silicon processes achievements were documented by published technical papers and over 50 oral presentations. In turn, McCarter has won many awards, mentioned in Forbes.com, Kiplinger Letter, Entrepenuer.com, Nasa Tech Briefs, Missile Defense Briefs Open and Classified, and recognized as the current world expert in precision silicon components. McCarter has served as member of editorial staff of Advanced Optical Technology, in Munich Germany since 2012. In 2016, Dr. Babin, Congressman District 37 and leader of Nasa Committee endorsed McCarter’s development of McCarter Silicon Space Systems. In addition to over 3000 hours of Technical Schools, McCarter has been directly mentored by the late Frank Anthony, Bell Labs and past 10 years Roger Paquin Perk & Elmer retired Materials Expert.

Dr. Michelle R. Stem has a Ph.D. in materials science engineering, MBA in management and B.S. in chemistry. Post-doc research and continued work as Senior Materials Researcher at Complete Consulting Services, LLC. Dr. Stem applies interdisciplinary expertise through multiscale analysis, computational modeling and laboratory synthesis to study extremely rare inorganic, complex and semi-conductor (ICS) materials. Dr. Stem researches ICS structural and property variations to discover and ultimately engineer new methods, applications, models, materials and metamaterials with the goal of controlling photonic, phononic, optoelectronic, band gap and other properties. In addition, Dr. Stem's research develops materials that save energy (e.g. power differentials for photonic band gap versus electronic materials) and finds alternatives to using up rare resources.

Yutaka Fukuchi was born in Tochigi, Japan, on April 29, 1975. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronics engineering from Tokyo University of Science, Chiba, Japan, in 1998 and 2000, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics engineering from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 2003. In 2003, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan as an Assistant Professor. From 2003 to 2005, he was also a Co-operative Research Fellow in Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Then, he became a Junior Associate Professor of Tokyo University of Science in 2006. Since 2009, he has been an Associate Professor at this university. From 2013 to 2014, he was a Visiting Research Fellow with the High-Speed Optical Communications Group, Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark. He has published over 140 papers in major international journals and conferences. His research interests are optical communications, quantum optics, nonlinear optics, and their applications. Dr. Fukuchi is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), and the Institute of Electronics, Information, and Communication Engineers (IEICE).

Gary Greenberg earned a PhD in Developmental Biology from University College London in 1981. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California during the 1980’s. In the early 1990’s he began inventing and developing three-dimensional light microscopes, for which he holds 20 US patents. He is the CEO of Edge-3D, LLC, a company that innovates 3D imaging devices for research, industry and biomedicine. Dr. Greenberg has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, and has given over fifty international talks, including two TED talks. He has written two books about sand through the microscope, A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder (2008), and The Secrets of Sand (2015), and a children's book, Mary's Magic Microscope (2011). Dr. Greenberg is currently a Research Affiliate at the Advanced Technology Research Center, University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy in Maui, where he uses 21st century microscopes to study Moon sand brought to Earth by NASA during the Apollo Missions. Each grain of sand is unique, and each has a story to tell.

Simon is currently a Hardware specialist at Broadcom Semiconductor ULC, Canada. Broadcom is a large public company that acquired Azastra in 2017. Simon has been focused on the design, epitaxy, and characterization of optoelectronic devices, including most recently at uSherbrooke, Azastra, and Broadcom. He received the 2017 CAP Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Industrial and Applied Physics. He has a Google Scholar h-index of 52, with about 250 publications, with over 11,000 citations, and he is the inventor of over 30 patents. He raised over $20M of private and venture capital funding and also obtained numerous research grants. He led Cyrium to become a manufacturer of one of the highest performance multijunction III-V solar cells and led Azastra to manufacture the highest performance phototransducer products. As an entrepreneur he cumulates over 25 years of experience in Optoelectronics and Photonics while developing and commercializing numerous devices and products in the industry at Azastra, Aton, Cyrium, Alcatel Optronics, Kymata, and also in research labs as a Professor at uSherbrooke, as a Senior Research Officer at National Research Council, as an Adjunct Professor in Physics at uOttawa, and at UCSB.

Branislav Vlahovic is Director of the National Science Foundation Computational Center of Research Excellence, NASA University Research Center for Aerospace Device, and NSF Center Partnership for Research and Education in Materials at North Carolina Central University. In 2004, he was awarded by the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina Oliver Max Gardner statewide award for his research and contribution to science. He has published more than 300 papers in peer reviewed journals.

Ephraim Suhir is on the faculty of the Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA, and Technical University, Vienna, Austria. He is also CEO of the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) ERS Co. in Los Altos, CA, USA. Ephraim is Foreign Full Member (Academician) of the National Academy of Engineering, Ukraine (he was born in that country); IEEE Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society of Optical Engineers (SPIE), and the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS); and Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the Institute of Physics (IoP), UK, and the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). He is Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Ephraim has authored 400+ publications (patents, technical papers, book chapters, books), presented numerous keynote and invited talks worldwide, and received many professional awards, including 1996 Bell Laboratories Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) Award (for developing effective methods for predicting the reliability of complex structures used in AT&T and Lucent Technologies products), and 2004 ASME Worcester Read Warner Medal for outstanding contributions to the permanent literature of engineering and laying the foundation of a new discipline “Structural Analysis of Electronic Systems”. Ephraim is the third “Russian American”, after S. Timoshenko and I. Sikorsky, who received this prestigious award. This year Ephraim received the 2019 IEEE Electronic Packaging Society (EPS) Field award for seminal contributions to mechanical reliability engineering and modeling of electronic and photonic packages and systems.

Devki N. Talwar graduated from Allahabad University in India in 1976 with a PhD degree in Condensed Matter Physics. From 1977-80 he worked as a Visiting Scientist at the Commissariat a’l Energie Atomic, Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France with Professor M. Vandevyver. While at Saclay he collaborated with theoretical /experimental group of Professor M. Balkanski, including Karel Kunc, M. Zigone, and G. Martinez and supervised 3 PhD theses. In January 1980 he joined the Physics Department, University of Houston as a Visiting Professor and collaborated with Professor C. S. Ting on problems related to the electronic properties of defects in Semiconductors and supervised a PhD student. From 1982-87 he was a faculty at Texas A & M University. He joined the Physics Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1987, supervised 20 MS theses. Since 2007-2014, Dr. Talwar served as the Chairperson of the Physics Department.

Bruno Wacogne is a CNRS Research Director at the FEMTO-ST Institute (UMR CNRS 6174) where he is leading the transversal axis Biom’@x concerning Sciences and Technologies for a Translational Medicine. He is also the technological coordinator of the Clinical Investigation Center of Besançon University hospital (INSERM CIC1431) where he is leading the Microsystems and Biological Qualification team. His research interests are micro technologies, optics, translational research, biological qualification and immune-combined medical devices. He is the author or co-author of nearly 200 communications and 10 patents

Dr. Andrei Ivanov is a Head of the Department of Optical Physics and Modern Natural Science at the ITMO University. He received his degree as a Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 2007. Dr. Ivanov’s main fields of interest are nano-photonics, nonlinear optics, and laser cooling of solids. His current research activities focus on multiphoton transitions in the bulk and on the surface of the semiconductors of different dimensions; pre-breakdown generation of free carriers in the insulators and semiconductors caused by the ultra-short pulse laser radiation; photon avalanche effect in the semiconductors and heterostructures, and dynamical Stark effect. His research at the ITMO University has been supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. He is the member of the D. S. Rozhdestvensky Optical Society and the Optical Society of America (OSA).

Naturalized US citizen (since 1985). Goal oriented, highly motivated and creative performer with proven leadership, administrative and coaching ability, extensive project and financial management experience, team player attitude, strong analytical and planning skills, effective communications (written and verbal) and presentation skills, as well as excellent organizational, interpersonal, and negotiation capabilities. Possesses thorough and in-depth understanding of the state-of-the-art in materials, mechanical, electrical, optical, information, telecommunication, reliability and related areas of engineering, of new and emerging technologies, and a clear vision for the most promising directions in the development of applied science and engineering. Works exceptionally well in dynamic and rapidly changing environments, under pressure and in short time frames. Performs effectively across multiple organizations, companies and departments, with specialists from various disciplines and fields, and with people of different mentalities, origins, and cultural backgrounds. Good public speaker and a quick learner. Exhibits strong interest in, and possesses good knowledge of, foreign cultures, values, attitudes, and customs. Always willing to learn new things and has exceptional receptiveness to, and quick grasp of, new approaches and ideas. Has a sociable disposition and gets along well with peers, supervisors, and subordinates. Bi-lingual: English and Russian. Fluent in Ukrainian.

Günter Nimtz has completed his PhD in the year 1969 from Vienna University. He is the Professor of Physics and a consultant of several Companies. He has published more than 200 papers in reputed journals and owns some patents. He was member of the supervisory board of an organic electronic materials company.

I am a CNRS Senior Researcher at the FEMTO-ST research institute in Besançon in France and I am leading the nonlinear photonics group since 2010. I am supervising both theoretical and experimental studies of fundamental nonlinear effects that occur in optical fibers and other tiny optical waveguides (photonic crystal fibers, optical micro and nanofibers, and resonators), with the aim of investigating potential applications to ultrafast signal processing, fiber-based telecommunications, fiber lasers and optical fiber sensors. I have broad expertise in nonlinear fiber optics and related fields and I made scientific achievements in the fields of broadband fiber-based parametric amplification, pulsed and cw-pumped supercontinuum generation, high-power Raman fiber lasers, passive mode-locking of fiber lasers through dissipative four-wave mixing, and Brillouin light scattering in specialty fibers, for which I have been awarded with the Fabry-Gramont Prize from the French Optical Society. I co-authored more than 100 publications in leading scientific journals and as many conference papers I have also been the principle investigator and co-investigator of several projects funded by national and european agencies and industrial partners (Europe H2020-MSCA-ITN, French research minister, ACI and ANR, LABEX Action, Europe Interreg Program, FEDER, Franche-Comté Region, University of Franche-Comté, PRES, CEA, Alcatel-Lucent). I am working closely with a number of industrial and academic collaborators in France and abroad (ULB Bruxelles, EPFL, Lausanne, McGill University, Montreal, University of Auckland, NZ, Max Planck Institute, Erlangen, Germany, Tampere University, University of Maryland, USA,..)

Mahmoud Fallahi is a professor in the college of optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toulouse and LAAS-CNRS, in 1988. He joined the National Research Council of Canada in 1989 and became a member of technical staff as a Research Scientist during 1992-1995. He joined the University of Arizona as an Assistant professor in 1995. His research has been extensively published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, reported in invited talks and published in international conference proceedings. He has authored or co-authored several book chapters, patents and invention disclosures. His recent research interests are in high power semiconductor lasers, tunable sources, nonlinear frequency generation, photonic integrated circuits, micro/nanofabrication, and hybrid organic-inorganic components for heterogeneous integration. He has served as Conference Chair and Program Committee member in several international conferences in the field of semiconductor lasers and integrated optics. Since August 2014 he has been with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a Program Director of the photonics program in the ECCS Division of Engineering Directorate. As a Program Director he is promoting and managing translational research programs in the field of optics and photonics.

Anna Orlova is Professor of the Department of Optical Physics and Modern Natural Science at the ITMO University, Head of international research lab “Magnetically controlled nanosystems for theranostics of oncological and cardiovascular diseases”. Prof. Orlova successfully combines lecture activity with development and research of hybrid nanosystems for theranostics and sensing based on colloidal quantum semiconductor nanocrystals, magnetic nanoparticles, graphene, titanium dioxide nanocrystals, and organic molecules. She graduated with honors from the Engineering Physics Faculty of LITMO Institute (St. Petersburg) in 1997, and then received the scientific degrees of Candidate of Technical Sciences in 2003 and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 2016 from the same institution (now ITMO University). Since 1997 to 2006 she was junior researcher at Vavilov Optical Institute, then returned to her Alma Mater and developed there from research associate to professor (2017).

Ottorino Veneri graduated in Electrical Engineering from the University of Naples 'Federico II' in 1996. By the same University in March 2000 he has been awarded his PhD in Electrical Engineering. From 1999 to 2001 he had a research grant provided by the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Naples 'Federico II'. Since 2002 he works as a researcher with the Istituto Motori of the National Research Council (CNR) of Italy in Naples. In recent years he has also become Full Professor at the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO. His main fields of interest are the electric drives for transportation systems, electric energy converters, electric energy storage systems, power sources with hydrogen fuel cells and hybrid propulsion architecture. He is co-author of 2 book published by Springer, 2 chapters of books and more than 60 papers published in International Journals and in proceedings of conferences. He is reviewer of various International Journals that publish material in the area of energy and power conversion, and technical reviewer of Italian Research and Development Projects. He is director of operative units at Istituto Motori within more than 10 Research National and International Projects.

Dr. Jing Bai is an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) in Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). She received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. Dr. Bai’s current research activities focus on nano-photonics, nano-photovoltaics, nonlinear optics, and nanoscale biomedical devices. Her research at UMD has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Whiteside Institute for Clinical Research, the MN Drive Initiatives, and the Graduate School of University of Minnesota. She is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), and the American Physics Society (APS).

Manijeh Razeghi joined Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, as a Walter P. Murphy Professor and Director of the Center for Quantum Devices in Fall 1991, where she created the undergraduate and graduate program in solid-state engineering. She is one of the leading scientists in the field of semiconductor science and technology, pioneering in the development and implementation of major modern epitaxial techniques. Her current research interest is in nanoscale optoelectronic quantum devices. She has authored or coauthored more than 1000 papers, more than 31 book chapters, and 18 books. She holds 55 U.S. patents and has given more than 1000 invited and plenary talks. She received the IBM Europe Science and Technology Prize in 1987, the Achievement Award from the SWE in 1995, the R.F. Bunshah Award in 2004 and many best paper awards. Dr. Razeghi is an elected Fellow of SWE (1995), SPIE (2000), IEC (2003), OSA (2004), APS (2004) IOP (2005), IEEE (2005) and MRS (2008). And IBM teacher of excellence 2013, and the 2016 Jan Czochralski Award. She is editor , associate, and Board member of many journals, including Nano Science and Nano technology.

Dr. Douglas R McCarter, Dhc, is the Technical Integrator of McCarter Machine & Technology Inc. , founded in 1981. McCarter’s patented and proprietary silicon processes achievements were documented by published technical papers and over 50 oral presentations. In turn, McCarter has won many awards, mentioned in Forbes.com, Kiplinger Letter, Entrepenuer.com, Nasa Tech Briefs, Missile Defense Briefs Open and Classified, and recognized as the current world expert in precision silicon components. McCarter has served as member of editorial staff of Advanced Optical Technology, in Munich Germany since 2012. In 2016, Dr. Babin, Congressman District 37 and leader of Nasa Committee endorsed McCarter’s development of McCarter Silicon Space Systems. In addition to over 3000 hours of Technical Schools, McCarter has been directly mentored by the late Frank Anthony, Bell Labs and past 10 years Roger Paquin Perk & Elmer retired Materials Expert.

Branislav Vlahovic is Director of the National Science Foundation Computational Center of Research Excellence, NASA University Research Center for Aerospace Device, and NSF Center Partnership for Research and Education in Materials at North Carolina Central University. In 2004, he was awarded by the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina Oliver Max Gardner statewide award for his research and contribution to science. He has published more than 300 papers in peer reviewed journals.

Mahmoud Fallahi is a professor in the college of optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toulouse and LAAS-CNRS, in 1988. He joined the National Research Council of Canada in 1989 and became a member of technical staff as a Research Scientist during 1992-1995. He joined the University of Arizona as an Assistant professor in 1995. His research has been extensively published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, reported in invited talks and published in international conference proceedings. He has authored or co-authored several book chapters, patents and invention disclosures. He has served as Conference Chair and Program Committee member in several international conferences in the field of semiconductor lasers and integrated optics. Since August 2014 he has been with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a Program Director of the photonics program in the ECCS Division of Engineering Directorate. As a Program Director he is promoting and managing translational research in the field of optics and photonics.

Ching Eng Jason PNG completed his PhD at the age of 30 years from Surrey University and MBA from INSEAD and Tsinghua. He is the director of Electronics & Photonics Department, Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) A*STAR, a premier organization. He published more than 90 papers in reputed journals, conferences, books, and book chapters. He is President and Founding Chair for URSI Singapore Committee, SPIE Photonics West Committee member, and also serves as topic editor for Frontiers in Physics and Taylor CRC Press. Funded by INSEAD, Singapore Government and investors, Jason started up A*STAR’s first silicon photonics spin-off company Optic2connect offering end-to-end solutions for telecoms and datacenters.

Dr. Selim Shahriar completed his PhD at the age of 27 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a Professor in the Department of EECS and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University (NU). He is the Director of the Laboratory of Atomic and Photonic Technologies, and the Director of the Solid and Photonics Division within EECS. He is a council member for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. He has published 173 papers in reputed journals, and has served as an Associate Editor for Optical Engineering. For his contributions to the detection of gravitational waves, he was a co-recipient of the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the Gruber Prize in Cosmology.

Prof. Tang Xiahui has completed his PhD at the age of 37 years from Huazhong University of Science and Technology(HUST) and now work as a professor and doctoral supervisor in School of Optical and Electronic Information, HUST. He is the vice director of National Engineering Research Center for Laser Processing. He has published more than 60 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of reputed journals.

Chaohong Lee got his PhD degree from Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003. From 2003 to 2009, he worked as a guest scientist in Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems and then a Research Fellow in Australian National University. Since December 2009, he works as a full professor in Sun Yat-Sen University. He has published more than 50 papers in high-impact international academic journals, including one in Rev. Mod. Phys., seven in Phys. Rev. Lett. and 23 in Phys. Rev. A/B/E.

Ephraim Suhir is on the faculty of the Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA, and Technical University, Vienna, Austria. He is also CEO of the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) ERS Co. in Los Altos, CA, USA. Ephraim is Foreign Full Member (Academician) of the National Academy of Engineering, Ukraine (he was born in that country); IEEE Life Fellow; Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Physics (IoP), UK, the Society of Optical Engineers (SPIE), the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS), the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), and Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) . Dr. Suhir has authored about 400 publications (patents, technical papers, book chapters, books), presented numerous keynote and invited talks worldwide, and received many professional awards, including 2004 ASME Worcester Read Warner Medal for outstanding contributions to the permanent literature of engineering (he is the third Russian American, after S. Timoshenko and I. Sikorsky, who received this prestigious award); and 1996 Bell Laboratories Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) Award for developing effective methods for predicting the reliability of complex structures used in AT&T and Lucent Technologies products.

Professor Blanche received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Liege (Belgium) in 1999 in the field of non-linear optics and holography. He then held a post-doctoral position at the University of Arizona where he developed new refreshable holographic recording materials called photorefractive polymers. Back in Belgium, he co-founded a company manufacturing large volume phase gratings for the optics industry, astronomers, and space applications. Professor Blanche returned to the University of Arizona in 2005 where he is currently an Associate Research Professor.

Professor Devki N. Talwar, is a Distinguished University Professor in the Physics Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), USA and conducts research on defects in semiconductor materials used in various electronics and opto-electronics applications. He has been with IUP for almost thirty years, and is the author of more than 135 refereed journal articles, four book chapters and more than 80 international conference presentations. He served as an Organizer in nine International Conferences organized by Materials Research Society, USA; Singapore; 5th World Congress on Materials Science and Engineering – Spain; Optics 2016; Mesoscopic Condensed Matter Physics, and Condensed Matter Physics -USA. He was invited as Honorary Guest member in Science Conclave with Nobel Laureates at IIIT-Allahabad from 2009-2014 and delivered Keynote addresses at Moscow Institute of Science and Technology and many other international conferences. His expertise in the sophisticated Green’s function technique is considered very useful for providing information on the electronic and vibrational properties of defects in semiconductors, quantum wells, and superlattices. He is recognized by the international community as a prolific researcher.

Yifu Zhu received his PhD degree from University of Virginia in 1987 and did postdoctoral studies at University or Oregon. He is a professor of physics at Florida International University. He has published over 100 papers in refereed journals.

Shien-Kuei (Peter) Liaw received double PhD degrees from National Chiao-Tung University in photonics engineering and from National Taiwan University in mechanical engineering, respectively. He joined the Chunghua Telecommunication, Taiwan, in 1993. Since then, he has been working on optical communication and fiber based technologies. Prof. Liaw joined the department of Electronic Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) in 2000. He has ever been director of the Optoelectronics Research Center and the Technology Transfer Center, NTUST. He was a visiting researcher at Bellcore (now Telcordia), USA for six months in 1996 and a visiting Professor at University of Oxford, UK for three months in 2011. He owned six U.S. patents, and authored or coauthored for 250 journal articles and international conference presentations. He earned many national honors such as Outstanding Professor of the Chinese Institute of Electrical Engineering in 2015; the winner of The 7th Y. Z. Hsu Scientific Paper Award in 2009; the best project award of National Science and Technology Program for Telecommunication in 2006; the outstanding Youth Award of The Chinese Institute of Electrical Engineering; and the outstanding Youth Academic Award of the Optical Engineering Society of the Republic of China. He has been actively contributing for numerous conferences as technical program chair, international advisory committee, session chair and invited speaker. He serves as an Associate Editor for Fiber and Integrated Optics. Currently, Dr. Liaw is a senior member of IEEE, OSA and SPIE. Currently, Dr. Liaw is a distinguished Professor of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), Vice President of the Optical Society (OSA) Taiwan Chapter and Secretary-General of Taiwan Photonic Society.

Dr. Peng-Sheng Wei received Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering Department at University of California, Davis, in 1984. He has been a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering of National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, since 1989. Dr. Wei has contributed to advancing the understanding of and to the applications of electron and laser beam, plasma, and resistance welding through theoretical analyses coupled with verification experiments. Investigations also include studies of their thermal and fluid flow processes, and formations of the defects such as humping, rippling, spiking and porosity. Dr. Wei has published more than 80 journal papers, delivered keynote or invited speeches in international conferences more than 90 times. He is a Fellow of AWS (2007), and a Fellow of ASME (2000). He also received the Outstanding Research Achievement Awards from both the National Science Council (2004), and NSYSU (1991, 2001, 2004), the Outstanding Scholar Research Project Winner Award from National Science Council (2008), the Adams Memorial Membership Award from AWS (2008), the Warren F. Savage Memorial Award from AWS (2012), and the William Irrgang Memorial Award from AWS (2014). He has been the Xi-Wan Chair Professor of NSYSU since 2009, and Invited Distinguished Professor in the Beijing University of Technology, China, during 2015-2017.