Lab Members
Professor Rashid Zia
Rashid Zia is Manning Assistant Professor of Engineering at Brown Univeristy and the Director of the Brown Microelectronics Central Facility. He graduated from Brown University with a combined A.B. in English and American Literature and Sc.B. in Engineering. He then went on to receive both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he was the first graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Mark L. Brongersma. Following his graduate studies, Rashid spent six months in the Laboratoire de Physique at the Universite de Bourgogne (Dijon, France) before returning to start the Laboratory for Subwavelength Optics at Brown Universtity. As a student, Rashid was the recipient of a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship, an honorary Stanford Graduate Fellowship, and a Tau Beta Pi Fellowship as well as the Domenico A. Ionata Award from Brown University. As a faculty member, Rashid was recently named as a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and his current research is supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER Award as well as a gift from the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative of the Semiconductor Research Corporation. [Abridged Curriculum Vitae] 
Sinan Karaveli, Ph.D. Candidate
Sinan is a fifth year graduate student in the Electrical Engineering Ph.D. program at Brown University. Sinan received his Bachelor of Science degree in 2006 from Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey. During his undergradaute studies, Sinan was a research intern at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Laussane (EPFL). His doctoral research on optical-frequency magnetic dipole transitions is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Dongfang Li, Ph.D. Candidate
Dongfang is a second year graduate student in the Physics Ph.D. program at Brown University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 2009. He is very interested in nanofabrciation, nanophotonics, and quantum optics. His current research on resonantly-enhanced lanthanide emitters for active nanophotonics is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Mingming Jiang, Ph.D. Candidate
Mingming is a second year graduate student in the Physics Ph.D. program at Brown University. He received his Bacholer of Science degree in 2009 from Nanjing University in Nanjing, China. His current research on a cavity-free, matrix-addressable quantum dot architecture for on-chip optical switchting is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Christopher Dodson, Ph.D. Candidate
Chris is a first year graduate student in the Electrical Engineering Ph.D. program at Brown University. He received a B.Sc. in Engineering Physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. As an undergraduate Chris worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) where he took a full time position upon graduating.
Lab Alumni
Yana Cheng, Ph.D. Candidate
Yana is a third year graduate student in the Physics Ph.D. program at Brown University. As part of an interdisciplinary rsearch project on epitaxial graphene, Yana worked in our lab to develop a resonant laser annealing technique to locally decompose Silicon Carbide. Yana is now working on the molecular beam epitaxy of SiC on Silicon in the lab of Professor Rod Beresford. Her project is is supported by a grant from the the National Science Foundation and a gift from the Nanoelectronics Resarch Initiative of the Semiconductor Research Corporation.
Aaron Weinstein, Reseach Assistant
Ari received his Sc.B. in Physics with Honors from Brown University in 2009. Following his graduation last May, Ari choose to pursue a full-time research project in our lab where he helped design and fabricate a custom-built Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscope to investigate the modification of selection rules and near-field Purcell enhancements. (In lieu of a photo, we thought we might feature one of Ari's sculptures.)Ari is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology, where he is working on quantum electro-mechanics in the lab of Professor Keith Schwab.
Ding Ding '09, DiMase Fellow
Ding received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering/Physics with Honors from Brown Universtiy. Ding joined the lab during his junior year, and he was awarded the DiMase Fellowship to support his research on the unique optical properties of cephalopods. Ding was also supported by a prestigious A*STAR Scholarship from the Republic of Singapore, which provides complete support for his undergraduate and graduate studies. After college, Ding worked as full-time research assistant at the A*STAR Data Storage Institute in Singapore. Ding is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology, where he is working in the quantum optics lab of Professor Jeff Kimble.
Joshua Spechler '08, UTRA Fellow & Honors Thesis Student
Josh received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from Brown University in May 2008. Josh joined the lab during his junior year, and he was awarded an UTRA Fellowship to support his research during the summer of 2007. His research focused on optical characterization of electronic transitions in rare-earth ions. Specifically, Josh designed and fabricated an optical heterodyne interferometer to study fast population changes in Europium doped glasses and their potential applications for high speed all-optical switching. After college, Josh worked as an optical engineer at the NASA/CalTech Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Josh is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University.
Adam Backer '08, Royce Fellow & Honors Thesis Student
Adam received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from Brown University in May 2008. Adam joined the lab during his junior year, and he was awarded a prestigious Royce Fellowship to support his research on optical metamaterials. Adam's most recent work included the development of new computational methods to model light emission in complex optical environments. After Brown, Adam received a M.Phil. degree at Cambridge University as a Craig-Cambridge Fellow, and he is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University,