Mentors and Collaborators

Prof. Siddharth Ramachandran obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1998. Thereafter, he joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff and subsequently continued with its spin-off, OFS Laboratories. After a decade in industry, he moved back to academics in 2010, and is now a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Boston University. Prof. Ramachandran’s research focuses on the optical physics of guided waves. He has authored ~200 refereed journal and conference publications, more than 40 invited talks, plenary lectures and tutorials, 3 book-chapters, edited one book, and has been granted over 30 patents. For his contributions in the field of fiber-optics, he was named a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at OFS Labs in 2003, and a fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) in 2010. He served as a topical editor for Optics Letters from 2008-2011, and is currently an associate editor for the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, in addition to serving on numerous conference and grant-review committees in the field of optics and applied physics.

Dr. Vipul Rastogi received the BSc degree from Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, India in 1991, the MSc degree from University of Roorkee, India in 1993, and the PhD degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India in 1998. From 1998 to 1999 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France and from 2000 to 2003 he has been a research fellow in the City University of Hong Kong. In November 2003 he joined the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, where he is currently working as an Associate Professor. His doctoral work included second order nonlinear interactions in optical waveguides, and periodically segmented waveguides. His current research interests are novel large mode area single-mode fibers, segmented cladding fibers, fiber optic sensors, and waveguide long period gratings. He has published over 70 research papers in refereed journals and conferences. Dr. Rastogi is a Fellow of Optical Society of India, Member of Optical Society of America and Life Member of Indian Laser Association. I worked under his mentorship during my undergraduate summer project at IIT Roorkee and later for my B.Tech Project in the senior year of my undergraduate education.

Dr. Ajeet Kumar received the BSc degree from Deen Dayal Upadhayay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, India in 2002, the MSc degree from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India in 2004, and the PhD degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India in 2009. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea. In July 2010 he joined the Delhi Technological University, Delhi, where he is currently working as an Assistant Professor. The aim of the his doctoral work was to present some novel designs for large-mode area (LMA) single-mode (SM) operation in fiber and rectangular waveguide configurations as they are preferred for high power application and for long haul optical communication. His current research interests are novel large mode area single-mode fibers, segmented cladding fibers, fiber optic sensors, large-core fiber for solar delivery system and waveguide long period gratings. Dr. Kumar is also recipient of Young Scientist award by Uttarakhand Government in 2008. I worked under his mentorship during my undergraduate education at DTU. He guided me for my undergraduate Minor Project and Major Project (B.Tech Project) and he has been a source of constant help, support and inspiration.

COLLABORATORS

Akshit Peer

Akshit is pursuing a doctoral degree from Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University. He completed his undergraduate degree (B.Tech) in Software Engineering from Delhi Technological University and was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal. His general research interests are in electronics and photonics and he is specifically interested in areas of photovoltaic and semiconductor materials and devices, photonic bandgap materials and optical waveguides. Not only is he outstanding academically, he is a terrific painter and crafter. Above all, he has a very warm and friendly demeanor and he has been a dear friend of mine since my undergraduate days.