PICs are the Pick: The Era of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC)
When
Where
Join us for a panel discussion featuring leaders from academia and industry exploring the future of integrated photonics and semiconductor manufacturing, moderated by Prof. Robert Norwood.
THIS PANEL IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Industrial Affiliates Partners are invited to learn more about the upcoming Industrial Affiliates Meeting on our website here.
Moderator: Robert Norwood
Professor of Optical Sciences, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Robert A. Norwood is a Professor in the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, where he performs research on photonic materials and devices. Dr. Norwood spent 15 years in R&D leadership positions in industry at both Fortune 100 corporations (Honeywell) and venture-capital backed startups (VP/CTO of Photon-X). He founded Norcon Technologies in 2017 to commercialize novel hybrid chalcogenide optical polymers developed at the University of Arizona. He is a world expert in integrated photonics, nonlinear optics and optical materials, with more than 215 refereed journal publications, 7 book chapters, 50 issued US patents, and 90 invited talks. Dr. Norwood has served on the program committees for OFC (sub-committee chair) and CLEO. He has been an associate editor of Optica, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters and Optical Materials Express. Dr. Norwood is a Fellow of Optica, SPIE and the National Academy of Inventors, as well as a member of APS. He holds the Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania, and B.S.’s in physics and mathematics from MIT.
Garrett Cole
Associate Professor, Nelson E. Claytor Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences
Assoc. Prof. Garrett D. Cole is the Nelson E. Claytor Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences. Cole earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2005. He began his career at Aerius Photonics and later held research positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Universität Wien. In 2012, he co-founded Crystalline Mirror Solutions, a spin-off commercializing semiconductor supermirrors for precision metrology. The company was acquired by Thorlabs in 2019, where Cole served as Managing Director of Thorlabs Crystalline Solutions before joining the faculty at U of A.
His work has earned international recognition, including the LIGHT2015 Young Photonics Entrepreneur Award, the Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis, the SPIE Prism Award, and election as a Fellow of Optica. Named to the Photonics100 in 2024, Cole continues to advance optical coating technologies, mid-infrared applications, and quantum hardware solutions while mentoring the next generation of optical scientists.
Nasser Peyghambarian
Professor Emeritus, Optical Sciences Chief Technical Officer
Nasser Peyghambarian, Phd, is the Technical Director of the Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing at University of Arizona (UA). He was the Chair of Photonics and Lasers at the College of Optical Sciences at UA (1991-2022) and Director of Optics Engineering at Amazon (2022-2025) developing augmented reality products. He was the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (2008-2019) that was focused on introducing silicon photonics in data centers and access aggregation networks. He was the Associate Director of NSF Science and Technology Center (2006-2013) that was focused on introducing polymeric materials in silicon photonics and information systems. He has made significant contributions in the areas of photonics and optoelectronics and supervised more than 70 Phds, 80 MS and 100 postdocs and research scientists. He has over 700 scientific publications and has given 740 invited papers. His H-index is 102 based on Google Scholar. He has authored a textbook on “introduction to Semiconductor Optics” and has 45 patents granted. He founded several venture-funded start-ups including NP Photonics, CM Laser, and EARDG, two of which were acquired by Fortune 500 companies. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a Fellow of Optica, the American Physical Society and the Society for the Advancement of Science.
Carl Dohrman
Associate Director, Raytheon Advanced Technology Business Unit
Dr. Carl Dohrman is an Associate Director leading a portfolio of integrated photonics programs for Raytheon’s Advanced Technology business unit. He is the principal investigator of Raytheon’s project under the DARPA HAPPI program, which is developing integrated chip-to-chip photonic interconnect technology. He is also the PI of a program to develop a domestic manufacturing line for thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) wafers. Prior to Raytheon, Carl was a SETA at DARPA for over eight years, where he served as a subject matter expert in integrated RF and photonic materials, devices, and systems. Carl’s Ph.D. thesis pioneered a novel multilayer substrate for heterogeneous integration, which was adopted by Raytheon on the DARPA COSMOS program to demonstrate advanced InP BiCMOS circuits. Carl received a B.S. degree from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D from MIT, both in materials science for electronics and photonics.
Srinivas Pietambaram
Senior Principal Engineer, Substrate Packaging Technology Development Organization (SPTD), Intel Foundry, Intel Corporation
Dr. Srinivas Pietambaram is a Senior Principal Engineer in Substrate Packaging Technology Development Organization (SPTD) of Intel Foundry, Intel Corporation. He is the technical lead responsible for driving disruptive packaging technologies and innovations with a recent focus on glass core substrates and Co-Packaged Optics. Srini is the recipient of the Intel Inventor of the year for 2023 and has authored over 1000 patent publications worldwide, 20+ technical papers in prestigious journals, and multiple trade secrets in packaging process / architecture / materials technologies, several of which are key to SPTD’s future technology packaging roadmap, He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from University of Florida in 2001 and worked with Motorola Labs for 10 years before joining Intel in 2011. Outside of work, Srini likes to spend time and travel with his family and enjoys listening to Indian Carnatic Music. He is also an avid sports fan with a special liking to Cricket and Gator Football.