Research

Last Updated: Aug 2023

Optics Research at Berkeley

Berkeley faculty who are actively involved in optics research are from the departments of Astronomy, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Molecular & Cell Biology, Physics, and Vision Science and Optometry. Selected optical faculty members along with their personal and/or lab websites are listed below. Prospective graduate students who are interested in studying optics at UC Berkeley are suggested to first identify a faculty member whose research program is of interest and the department to which he/she belongs. Each department has its own application process so please visit each affiliated department’s website for more information on how to apply.

Research Groups

FacultyDepartmentsResearch Area
Boubacar KanteEECSwave-matter interaction, nanophotonics, nanoscale photon management, biophysics
Constance Chang-HasnainEECSsemiconductor optoelectronic devices, nano-optoelectronics, broadband communications, high throughput biosensing
Laura WallerEECScomputational optical imaging, digital holography, light field cameras, metrology and inspection, phase retrieval, inverse problems in imaging, phase-space optics, optical coherence theory, nonlinear optics, 3d imaging and display
Ming C. WuEECSsilicon photonics, mems, photonic integrated circuits, data center networks, 3d sensing, solid state lidar, optofluidics
Eli YablonovitchEECSoptoelectronics, physical electronics, high speed optical communications, nanocavity lasers, photonic crystals at optical and microwave frequencies, quantum computing and communication
Rikky MullerEECSintegrated circuits, biosystems and computational biology, micro/nano electro mechanical systems
Vladimir StojanovicEECSintegrated circuits, silicon photonics, VLSI
Alp SipahigilEECS, Physicssolid-state devices and technology, quantum technologies
Ren NgEECSimaging systems, computational photography, graphics, optics, computer vision, human vision, signal processing, artificial intelligence
Xiang ZhangMechEmechanical engineering, rapid prototyping, semiconductor manufacturing, photonics, micro-nano scale engineering, 3d fabrication technologies, microelectronics, micro and nano-devices, nano-lithography, nano-instrumentation, bio-mems
Aaron StreetsBioengineeringbiological systems, microfluidics, microscopy, genomics
Daniel FletcherBioengineeringbioengineering, optical and force microscopy, microfabrication, biophysics, mechanical properties of cells
Markita LandryChemistrynanomaterials, fluorescence microscopy, sensors, imaging, neuroscience, plant engineering
Ke XuChemistrybiophysical chemistry, cell biology at the nanoscale, super-resolution microscopy, single-molecule spectroscopy
Austin John RoordaOptometryadaptive optics, eye, vision, ophthalmoscopy, scanning laser ophthalmoscope, ophthalmology
Jacob YatesOptometryoptometry
William TutenOptometryoptometry
Hillel AdesnikMolecular & Cell Biologyneuroscience, neurobiology
Srigokul UpadhyayulaMolecular & Cell Biologybioimaging, microscopy, multimodel imaging system, artificial intelligence
Na JiMolecular & Cell Biology, Physicsneuroscience, microscopy techniques, in vivo imaging, biophotonics, biophysics, adaptive optics, optics
Eric BetzigMolecular & Cell Biology, Physics, HWNIimaging microscopy, biophysics
Jessica LuPhysics, Astronomyblack holes, star and cluster formation, galactic centers, adaptive optics, astronomy, infrared instrumentation
Naomi GinsbergPhysicsatomic molecular and optical physics, biophysics, condensed matter physics and material science
Feng WangPhysicscondensed matter physics, photonics, nanoscience
Dan Stamper-KurnPhysicsatomic physics, the use of ultra-cold neutral atoms, studies of microscopic and macroscopic quantum phenomena, cavity quantum electrodynamics, bose-einstein condensation, precision and quantum measurement
Eric Yue MaPhysicsatomic, molecular and optical physics, condensed matter physics and materials science
Joseph OrensteinPhysicsphysics, optics, electromagnetic radiation, probe condensed matter systems, light waves, transmission and reflection coefficients, high-tc superconductors organic molecular crystals, quasiparticles, origin of superconductivity, terahertz spectroscopy
Jack GallantPsychologycomputational neuroscience, vision science, attention, fMRI, language, natural scene perception, brain encoding, brain decoding

For more faculty research info visit https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty-expertise. Don’t see your group listed? Email us to be added.