February 2026
We attended the 2026 Photonics Workshop and Showcase held at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Dima, Luis, Chun, Paniz, and Naren all presented their poster research. Congratulations to Naren for winning 2nd place in the Best Poster Award!
February 2026
We are excited to share great news from our research group! All six of our submitted abstracts have been accepted to the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), including four oral presentations and two poster presentations—a strong recognition of our team’s hard work and the impact of our research.
Congratulations to everyone involved in this outstanding achievement! We look forward to presenting our work at CLEO and engaging with the broader optics and photonics community.
February 2026
Congratulations to Luis on receiving the Postdoctoral and Research Staff Excellence in Student Research Mentorship Award from UNT! This well-deserved recognition highlights his outstanding dedication to mentoring and supporting student researchers. Well done!
January 2026
Welcome Gurtaj to our research group! Gurtaj is a junior at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS), currently studying under the Computer Science track.
October 2025
Welcome Carice and Gagan to our research group! Gagan and Carice are juniors at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS), currently studying under the electrical engineering track and the general mathematics and science track.
Sep 2025
Our first paper is online at Optics Express, also highlighted as an Editor's Pick: https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-33-18-39117&id=576321
Congrats to Dima, Zhongyuan, Brigham, Aiden, and Camila!
Aug 2025
Congrats to Naren for receiving the Steve and Kathy Weiner Research Scholarship, which recognizes students who have conducted research in engineering or computer science.
July 2025
Congratulations to Naren and Carolyn for receiving the Undergraduate Research Fellowship (URF) for the academic year 2025-2026.
June 2025
Yuzhe partnered with the UNT Planetarium to deliver a public lecture titled “Thermal Radiation: Hot Science, Cool Opportunities” at the Sky Theater. Before the talk, our group captivated attendees with a live infrared imaging demonstration, offering an interactive glimpse into the invisible world of thermal radiation.
June 2025
The first preprint from our group is now on arXiv (arxiv:2506.14554). In this work, we develop and compare different methods for accurate depth-resolved temperature inversion via thermal-radiation spectroscopy. Congrats to Dima, Zhongyuan, Brigham, Aiden, and Camila!
June 2025
In May 2025, SPIE awarded $323,000 in scholarships to 74 outstanding SPIE Student Members, based on their potential contribution to optics and photonics, or a related discipline. Congratulations to Naren for receiving the SPIE Optics and Photonics Scholarship! Press release here.
May 2025
We were at CLEO 2025. Dima presented an oral talk and a poster presentation at this conference.
April 2025
Congratulations to Paniz for winning first place in the 2025 UNT Physics Lightning Talk Competition!
March 2025
Our group recently inspired young minds at UNT’s Center for Young Children (CYC) with an engaging outreach event on optics and thermal radiation. We presented three hands-on demonstrations that captivated the children, sparking their curiosity about the science of light and heat. The event was a resounding success, fostering excitement for science through fun and educational experiences.
February 2025
Naren successfully completed the Fort Worth Regional Science and Engineering Fair (FWRSEF) poster presentation, earning third place in the physics category and qualifying for the Texas Science and Engineering Fair (TXSEF)! Congratulations, Naren!
February 2025
We attended the 2025 UTA Annual Photonics Workshop and Showcase held at the University of Texas at Arlington. Yuzhe delivered a talk, and Dima presented a poster. Congratulations to Dima for winning 3rd place in the Best Poster Award!
January 2025
Naren's paper was selected for the Texas Junior Science & Humanities Symposium (TJSHS) at Texas A&M, in the physics category. Naren presented his work at TJSHS in January.
December 2024
During our end-of-semester group meeting for Fall 2024, everyone shared their achievements and reflections from the past semester, highlighting progress, challenges, and key learning moments. It was inspiring to see the dedication and growth within the team. As we close the semester, we are excited and motivated to build on this momentum for a productive and successful Spring 2025.
September 2024
Welcome our new group members from the Texas Academy of Math and Science (TAMS) program: Carolyn Wang and Sanjana Viswaprabakaran! Carolyn is in on the Math 2x2 with Grad Track and Sanjana is on the Mechanical Energy and Engineering Track in TAMS.
August 2024
With the start of the new semester, our group welcomes new members. Welcome our new graduate students, Chun Wang and Paniz Khakpour, and new students from the Texas Academy of Math and Science (TAMS) program: Kevin Li, Alexander Sun, Bhardwaj Ayan, and Naren Ganesh!
August 2024
We received an instrument grant from the Army. Dr. Xiao serves as the PI with co-PIs Dr. Yuankun Lin (Physics), Dr. Jens Neu (Physics), Dr. Jeffry Kelber (Chemistry), and Dr. Melanie Ecker (Biomedical Engineering). Dr. Rebekah Purvis (Physics) is a senior personnel member on the grant.
The team's winning proposal, "Understanding Infrared Materials with Optical Ellipsometry," secures funding to purchase an infrared variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer. This advanced instrumentation will significantly enhance the team's ability to characterize and understand the optical properties of infrared materials.
July 2024
Led by Dr. Arkadii Krokhin, Professor in Physics, the Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) Program sponsored by NSF was held at UNT this summer. REM engages high school and graduate/ undergraduate students, and teachers in research leading to the discovery of new knowledge, provides mentoring from a diverse research team, promotes graduate study as a future professional goal, and provides instructive and appealing learning components.
Congrats to Jack and Louis on completing this REM program. Yuzhe is a faculty mentor and Dmytro is a graduate student mentor and helped organizing this REM program.
July 2024
Congrats Yuzhe for receiving the Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) Award from NSF. The LEAPS-MPS program has an emphasis to help launch the careers of pre-tenure faculty in Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) fields and is intended to support MPS principal investigators, for whom LEAPS funding would enable the PI to submit a subsequent successful proposal to a traditional, already-existing NSF funding opportunity, such as individual investigator programs, CAREER competitions, etc.
July 2024
WelcomeJack Hasty! Jack is a 1st year graduate student in the Physics Department at the University of North Texas. He completed his BS in Mathematics in May 2020 and his BS in Physics in July 2024, both at UNT.
July 2024
Welcome Luis Cortes-Herrera! Luis graduated from the University of Rochester with a Ph.D in Optics in June 2024 and he is interested in the analysis and optimization of photonic systems.
June 2024
Welcome Dmytro Shymkiv! Dmytro obtained his Ph.D degree in physics from UNT in May 2024 and his postdoc work in our group will be related to thermal emission.
June 2024
Our project in collaboration with Prof. Sameehan Joshi's group from the Materials Science and Engineering department at UNT has been awarded funding support from the College of Engineering - College of Science Collaborative Research Seed Funding Program at UNT.
April 2024
Louis presented his work on depth thermography for micron-scale porous media at UNT Scholars Day!
December 2023
We have a laser!
November 2023
FTIR system is installed.
October 2023
Lasers and tables were craned into the lab!
September 2023
Congrats Yuzhe for receiving the Young Faculty Award (YFA) from DARPA. Each year only about 30 rising stars in junior research positions receive this prestigious award. The YFA program provides funding, mentoring, and industry and DoD contacts to awardees early in their careers so they may develop their research ideas in the context of national security needs. Yuzhe will receive $500K in funding support from the YFA program for his research on thermal emission.
August 2023
Our team project "Machine Learning in Physics and Chemical Sciences" together with several other groups from the physics department and the chemistry department has been selected for funding support from the UNT Office of The Provost & Division of Academic Affairs.
August 2023
Congratulations to Louis Keating for receiving the Undergraduate Research Fellowship (URF) for the academic year 2023-2024.
July 2023
Happy to work with the thermography team (Camila Nunez, Brigham Thornock, and Aiden Karpf) during the AI/CS REU summer research program at UNT. We look forward to continuing working on this project with the thermography team.
July 2023
Yuzhe presented an invited talk at the META conference in July 2023, held in Paris, France.
May 2023
Our two projects, in collaboration with Prof. Neda Habibi's group and Prof. Fateme Esmailie's group, both from the Biomedical Engineering department at UNT, have been awarded funding support from the College of Engineering - College of Science Collaborative Research Seed Funding Program at UNT.
May 2023
Welcome Louis Keating! Louis is an undergraduate student in physics. He will work on a project related to the optical properties of human bones.
May 2023
Yuzhe volunteered as a grand award judge for the physics and astronomy category at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2023, held in Dallas, TX.
