Photonics Industry Focus

Dr. Joseph currently manages the Modern Optics Program at the Army Research Office. Dr. Joseph completed his graduate studies at Duke University investigating neutral atoms systems, receiving his Ph.D. in Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics. Before joining ARO Dr. Joseph worked as a research scientist investigating ultracold trapped ion systems.

Franklyn Quinlan is a Physicist and Leader of the Precision Photonic Synthesis Group in the Time and Frequency Division at NIST in Boulder, CO. His research includes optical frequency comb and ultrastable laser development, low noise microwave generation, and photonic interconnects to cryogenic platforms. He is a Fellow of Optica.

John Bowers holds the Fred Kavli Chair and is the Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency and a Distinguished Professor in the ECE and Materials Departments at UCSB. Dr. Bowers is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is an AAAS, OSA, IEEE and APS fellow. He is a recipient of the IEEE Nishizawa Medal, IEEE Photonics, OSA/IEEE Tyndall, OSA Holonyak and IEEE William Streifer Awards.

Christoph is a mechatronics graduate from Germany. He began his career in aviation, servicing flight engines, including those used for the Red Bull Air Race. He did further studies in metal manufacturing and operations management. Then, he joined Mynaric in 2020 as a Manufacturing Engineer, and he is currently transitioning to a Systems Test Engineer role.

Full Professor in Electronics.Optoelectronics and Photonics teacher for the Master Degree in Electronics Engineering.Vice Dean for International programs of the Information Engineering, Informatics and Statistics Faculty and President of the Electronics Engineering Didactic Area Council, since 2019.Director of Center of Nanotechnologies Applied to Engineering, and PI of the Optoelectronics Laboratory of Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications. President of IEEE Photonics Society – Italy Chapter from 2020 to 2023 and of the Italian Liquid Crystal Society from 2010 to 2022. Senior Member of IEEE and of OPTICA.

Dr. Daniel Renner grew up in the southern part of Chile, in South America. He received his Bachelor of Engineering Degree from the Universidad de Chile and then, in his early twenties, he went to the University of Cambridge in England to do a Ph.D. in opto-electronics, a new field of studies at the time. Now, decades later, he has lived through the whole range of experiences that relate to the research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of complex photonic devices and systems used in communication, sensor and industrial applications. In the past 34 years, Daniel has been directly involved with the growth of four photonic startups in the United States, Ortel Corporation, Agility Communications, Aerius Photonics and Freedom Photonics. This gives him a unique perspective on the workings of a high-tech small business and the process of transforming leading-edge photonic technology into products.
Daniel is currently at Atacama Optics & Electronics, Santa Barbara, California, where he provides support to photonic companies in business development aspects. Additionally, Daniel is Chair of the IEEE Photonics Society Industry Engagement Committee.

Professor Dr Waguih Ishak has made exceptional contributions to invent/develop/manufacture optical devices and systems for communications, consumers and computations applications. Examples: Waguih created global research teams in the US, Japan, and China which developed more than 20 optical instruments, which were critical to usher in the fiber optic communications revolution in the 1980s. Waguih’s team developed and manufactured the world’s first commercial vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL). Waguih’s team invented the world’s first laser mouse as a computer pointing device (multi billions sold). Waguih’s team created the first parallel optical interconnects modules at 120 Gb/s and higher for computer interconnects. Waguih’s team developed the 40 Gb/s active optical cables for consumer interconnects.

Christian Hinke serves as Chief Engineer at the Chair for Laser Technology at RWTH Aachen University and as Managing Director of the Research Campus Digital Photonic. Besides his positions at RWTH Aachen University, he is affiliated with Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen. He received his Diploma in Physics and his PhD in mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University. His research is focused on using the laser for direct production from digital data. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Cluster of Excellence Internet of Production, of the Managing Board of the regional cluster LASER.region.AACHEN and of the Advisory Board of the Werner-von-Siemens Centre for Industry and Science.

Juan Hernández-Cordero received his BSc. degree in electrical engineering from UNAM, and a Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University. After a year as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Boston University, he joined the Materials Research Institute at UNAM to established the Laboratory for Photonic Devices and Optical Fiber Sensors. His fields of interest include optical fiber sensors, fiber lasers and photonic devices for biomedical applications.

André Richter is an expert with 25+ years of experience in optical communications, fiber optics, and integrated photonics. He received his M.Sc. from Georgia Tech and Ph.D. from TU Berlin. André co-authored 140+ publications, is a senior member of IEEE and Optica, and has served on technical committees of several conferences.

Since February 2024, Dr Abdul Rahim has been the Ecosystem Manager at PhotonDelta – a growth accelerator for integrated photonics. In this role, he focuses on strengthening the PhotonDelta ecosystem through ecosystem development, fostering collaboration between the ecosystem partners, tracking the technology trends and aligning the PhotonDelta ecosystem with the market needs. Abdul Rahim holds a degree in innovation management and entrepreneurship from HEC Paris. In 2014, he earned his PhD from Technische Universitaet Berlin, Germany. His research focuses on silicon photonics for optical communication. From 2015 to 2024, Abdul Rahim managed ePIXfab – the European silicon photonics alliance and transformed it into an open alliance to promote silicon photonics science, technology, and application.