News and Highlights 

We are pleased to welcome Thibault Bondaz to our group. Thibault brings a strong background in optical engineering, with broad expertise in optics and photonics. We are delighted to have him join the team and look forward to his contributions to our research. 

We are excited to congratulate Homa Saadatmand and Suraj Bhandari on attending their first CLEO conference. The Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) is a leading international forum for advances in laser science, optics, and photonics, bringing together researchers from fundamental science, emerging technologies, and applications. 

Homa gave an oral presentation, “Optical–Thermodynamic and Array-Mode-Filtering Mechanisms Behind Power-Induced Dimensionality Increase in Soft Matter,” as part of the CLEO: Fundamental Science program. 

Suraj presented a poster, “Conservative Nonreciprocity and EP-Adjacent Solitons Dynamic from Competing Nonlocal Nonlinearities,” highlighting our work on nonreciprocal interactions and soliton dynamics in nonlinear optical systems. 

It was a great opportunity for Homa and Suraj to share their research, exchange ideas with the broader optics and photonics community, and experience CLEO for the first time. Congratulations to both on a successful conference! 

Congratulations to Suraj Bhandari on successfully passing her oral exam and officially becoming a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics at the University of Miami! 

Suraj has completed his fourth semester, fulfilled all required coursework, and passed the oral exam. He began his research in the Nonlinear and Quantum Optics Group two semesters ago, focusing on non-reciprocal nonlinear light dynamics.  

We are proud of Suraj’s accomplishments and excited to support his continued contributions to the field.

We are excited to congratulate Homa Saadatmand on her first co-first-author publication in Physical Review A! The work explores how the pitch of chiral nematic liquid crystals controls nonlinear self-focusing and optical soliton formation, providing a computationally efficient model for studying light–matter interactions in nonlinear photonic systems.   

To learn more, please see the article in Physical Review A: “Pitch-controlled reorientational nonlinearity in chiral nematic liquid crystals: A reduced-order model for self-focusing and soliton formation.”  (DOI)

We are pleased to share that Ahmed was recently highlighted in an external feature recognizing his achievements in optics research, including work related to lasers, refraction, and light–matter interactions. This recognition reflects both his strong academic dedication and his growing impact in research.

Despite being an early-career student, Ahmed was selected as one of only a small group of recipients of a highly competitive summer research fellowship. His accomplishment demonstrates that curiosity, motivation, and commitment can be just as important as prior experience or senior academic standing.

The fellowship supports academically motivated students by providing funding to focus fully on faculty-mentored research projects while gaining hands-on experience in an advanced academic environment. Participants also benefit from mentorship, professional development, and exposure to modern research methodologies.

Ahmed encourages students to pursue research opportunities early, emphasizing that enthusiasm, a positive attitude, and dedication are highly valued by mentors. He also recommends starting the search for mentors and applications early.

Congratulations to Ahmed on this well-deserved recognition — we look forward to his continued contributions to optics research.

To learn more please see: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTyYnybCSFn/?igsh=MXJ4NzRwczZnOXRtcw== 

We would like to welcome Faris Kanan as a new member of our group. Faris is an undergraduate student in electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the College of Engineering, University of Miami. He is also currently serving as President of UMaker (2025–2026).

We are thrilled to share that Ahmed has been awarded the Prestigious Academic Enhancement Research Fellowship from the Office of Academic Enhancement at the University of Miami. Ahmed is one of only five students selected for this highly competitive fellowship, which will support his research this summer in the Nonlinear and Quantum Optics Group.

To learn more please see: linkedin/post

Congratulations to Homa Saadatmand on successfully passing her oral exam and officially becoming a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics at the University of Miami! 

Homa has completed her fifth semester, fulfilled all required coursework, and passed the oral exam. She began her research in the Nonlinear and Quantum Optics Group two semesters ago, focusing on exploring nonlinear dynamics in multimode photonic systems.  

We are proud of Homa’s accomplishments and excited to support her continued contributions to the field.

We would like to welcome Ahmed Sameh Ahmed as a new member of our group. Ahmed is an undergraduate student of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the College of Engineering, University of Miami. 

Thrilled to announce the publication of our first paper as part of the Department of Physics at the University of Miami! Our work explores the fascinating phase transitions of novel supermode solitons in media with competing nonlinearities. (DOI)

Congrats to Ameer Batarseh and Mohammad Javad Zakeri on this achievement!