Teachers & Speakers
Dr. Sterling Backusis well known as a pioneering developer of new ultrafast laser technologies. He has been with Thorlabs since Oct 2019, as well being as an Adjunct Professor in the ECE Department at Colorado State University. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees, in Physics and a PhD in Engineering Science from Washington State University in 1996. His work in the development of high peak-and-average power ultrafast Ti:sapphire lasers, and the use of cryogenic cooling for ultrafast laser systems. Sterling is a Fellow of Optica, A Harold E. Edgerton award recipient, a U.S. Army veteran, and has served on program committees for numerous conferences in the field. He is also a #STEAM promoter in K-12 to seed the future of science, technology, engineering, artand math!
Joshua C. Bienfangis a physicist in the Quantum Measurement Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and an affiliate of the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland. He received his doctoral degree in 2001 from the University of New Mexico in laser frequency stabilization and non-linear optics. In 2001 he built a 20 W sodium guidestar for adaptive optics based on continuous-wave sum-frequency generation. In 2004 his team demonstrated the first gigahertz-rate single-photon-based quantum key distribution system supporting one-time-pad encrypted streaming video. In 2013 his team demonstrated the first gigahertz-gated single-photon avalanche diode with detection efficiency above 50%. His group built an ultra-low-latency random number generator, and he was a co-champion of NIST’s loophole-free Bell test. His current research includes the development of single-photon detectors, detector metrology, quantum communications, and quantum networking.
Dr. Sonia Buckleyis a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado in the Sources and Detectors group of the Applied Physics Division. Her research interests are in metrology for future technologies and industries, with a current focus on developing standardized single photon detector efficiency measurements and a calibration service at NIST. She has over 40 publications in the areas of quantum optics, integrated photonics, and hardware for artificial intelligence. Sonia received a PhD in Applied Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2014, and her undergraduate degree in Physics from Trinity College Dublin in 2009.
Ivan A. Burenkovis an Assistant Research Scientist at Joint Quantum Institute. He received his Ph.D. degree from Lomonosov Moscow State University. He was a postdoctoral research fellow with Professor Sergey P. Kulik in the department of Quantum Electronics, where he built a laboratory for experimental cold atom physics and atomic optics. In 2015 Ivan joined the group of Professor Sergey V. Polyakov at NIST/JQI. Dr. Burenkov's current interests broadly cover quantum optics with research related to single-photon sources, detectors, quantum measurements, and quantum biophotonics. Specific efforts involve the implementation of the DCQ-net quantum network between NIST and UMD, a single-photon sensitive quantum flow cytometer that allows for faster, more accurate blood tests, a quantum microscope with applications in early-stage cancer detection, and photonic quantum information transduction and processing devices for quantum networking and computing.
Dr. Tasshi Dennisis the leader of the Quantum Networks project within the Communications Technology Laboratory of NIST, striving to demonstrate the world’s first optical network of remotely entangled, superconducting quantum computers. During his more than 20 year tenure at NIST, Tasshi has worked primarily in the research area of broadband optical communications. He has made contributions to the characterization of optical fibers, reference standards for wavelength division multiplexing, metrology for complex modulation formats, electro-optic sampling of electrical signals, and linear optical sampling of coherent optical signals. Tasshi is a senior member of the Optical Society of America, has served on the editorial board of Measurement Science and Technology, is an expert in quality management systems, and is adjoint Physics Department faculty at the University of Colorado – Boulder.
John Dorighiis a photonics application engineer at Keysight Technologies. He received his B.S. degree in engineering at University of Colorado, Boulder, and his M.S. and Ph.D. engineering degrees at Northwestern University in Evanston Il. His doctoral research focused on developing, modelling, and characterizing fiber optic sensors for materials testing. He is currently engaging with university research labs to explore new photonic application spaces. Current areas of focus include photonic integrated circuits (PICs), quantum communication, and optical 6G wireless. He is a member of IEEE and has been with Hewlett Packard, Agilent, and Keysight Technologies since 1999.
Klea Dhimitriis an ApplicationsEngineer at Hamamatsu Corporation in Bridgewater, NJ. Her expertise includes photodetectors such as photomultiplier tubes (PMT), single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD), MPPC (which is Hamamatsu’s silicon photomultiplier), photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes (APD) and their role in quantum applications. Klea leads Hamamatsu's efforts and bringing R&D from Japan together with researchers and early adopters in North America to provide a range of photonics solutions from detectors, modulators, cameras for the current and future quantum technologies landscape. Managing Hamamatsu Corporation engagement and activities in North American quantum hubs like the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C). She received her bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics from CUNY Hunter College in 2018.
Dr. Angela Gamourasis a Research Officer in the Metrology Research Center at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa, and a Fellow of the NRC-uOttawa Joint Center for Extreme Photonics. At NRC, Dr. Gamouras is responsible for Canada’s primary scale realizations of optical power and spectral irradiance, and has been developing efforts in few-photon metrology and Canadian quantum photonics standards. Dr. Gamouras holds a PhD in Physics from Dalhousie University where her thesis research focused on ultrafast quantum control of semiconductor quantum dots for quantum computing applications.
Thomas Gerritsis a Physicist in the Applied and Computational Mathematics Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He received his M.S. and PhD degree from the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. In 2006 he joined the Faint Photonics and Quantum Nanophotonic groups at NIST and has pioneered the applications of high-efficiency superconducting single photon detectors for quantum optics and quantum information. He also worked on establishing a quantum standard for traceable optical radiometry. In 2020 he joined ITL’s Computing and Communications Theory Group at NIST, where he is developing widgets, methods and protocols for the characterization of future quantum networks and network components. His r search interests include the generation of exotic quantum states of light, optical quantum metrology, development of measurement tools for quantum and classical optics, single photon imaging and quantum radiometry.
Dr. Mireia PereraGonzalez works as a Technical Sales Team Lead at Swabian InstrumentsUSA, managing all projects in the Americas. Mireia earned her PhD in Bioengineering fromNortheastern University and has joined the Swabian Instruments team since.
Poolad Imany is the founder and CEO of Icarus Quantum, a spinout from NIST and ӽ紫ý focusing on developing efficient photon sources to scale quantum computers through interconnection. Prior to Icarus, Poolad received a PhD in electrical engineering from Purdue University and was a postdoctoral associate in the Quantum Nanophotonics Group at NIST.
Matt Kirchner got his PhD in Physics from ӽ紫ý in 2011, working with Scott Diddams (NIST) on frequency combs and pulse shaping. From there, he moved to KMLabs designing and building ultrafast laser systems and nonlinear frequency conversion devices, finally moving to high energy ultrafast fiber lasers. Matt took over the KMLabs laser engineering group in 2015 and became Director of Product Management and Laser Engineering in 2018. Following the Thorlabs acquisition of part of KMLabs in 2019, Matt became the Site Manager of the Colorado branch of Thorlabs, directing the production, R&D, and operations for the Laser Division team. In 2025, Thorlabs created a new business unit, Colorado Center for Innovation, which Matt heads as the Business Unit Leader.
Amanda Koepkeis a Mathematical Statistician at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where she has spent the past nine years collaborating with engineers, physical scientists, and fellow statisticians on a range of projects across NIST, NOAA, and NTIA. She holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Washington and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Her current research interests include Bayesian methods, meta-analysis and interlaboratory studies, and spectral analysis for time and frequency data.
Dr. Logan Kossel is a Principal Cryogenic Engineer at the Boulder branch of FormFactor Inc., a company engaged in supporting the cryogenic infrastructure of emerging quantum technologies. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2024 under Prof. John Pfotenhauer, where he developed state-of-the-art helium heat pipes. Before joining FormFactor, Logan was also involved in cryogenics research at NIST and NASA, where he studied and developed a variety of cryogenic technologies such as regenerative cryocoolers, adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators, sub-Kelvin heat switches, and sorption pumps.
Professor Stefan Kueck(Physikalisch-Technisches Bundesanstalt)
John Lehmanis a Senior Research Scientist in the Sources and Detectors Group and Senior Research Scientist in the Physical Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The Sources and Detectors Group provides laser power and energy calibration services to the US and other parts of the world – ranging from 0.2 attowatts to 100 kilowatts (in terms of photons, that’s about 1 photon/sec to 1023photons/sec at 1 µm). The Group’s research is related to new sources, detectors, and measurements to support US industry, quantum communications, manufacturing, and defense. John was awarded the Quantum Electronics and Photonics Ph.D. Prize from the Institute of Physics (IoP, UK). He is a Fellow of Optica and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany.
Adriana E. Litais a NIST Staff Scientist with over 18 years of experience in fabrication and development of single-photon detectors such as transition-edge sensors (TES) and superconducting nanowires single-photon detectors (SNSPD) devices. Her work includes development of record high quantum efficiency TES devices optimized at various wavelengths from UV to near IR, integration of TES with optical waveguides platforms for photonic circuits, as well as materials development for SNSPDs. These single-photon detectors have been used in experiments at numerous laboratories around the world with applications ranging from testing fundamental laws of quantum mechanics to metrology of quantum light states and implementations of photonic quantum computing. Dr. Lita has published numerous scientific articles including a recent invited tutorial review paper on "Development of superconducting single-photon and photon-number resolving detectors for quantum applications” (A. E. Lita et al., Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2022, doi: 10.1109/JLT.2022.3195000.)
Adam McCaughanis a staff researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, CO. His current research is on single-photon detector technologies, neuromorphic hardware analysis, and superconducting nanoelectronics. He received his PhD from MIT under Prof. Karl Berggren, where he first studied superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and where he was awarded the Jin Au Kong Award for outstanding PhD thesis. He started at NIST in 2016, joining the Faint Photonics group run by Sae Woo Nam. Recently he was named a Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellow by NASA for his work on superconducting-nanowire single-photon detector arrays.
Aaron J. Miller, co-founder and president of Quantum Opus, LLC, is an expert in low-temperature superconducting photon counters, device fabrication and processes, and cryogenic and room-temperature electronics. He has been working directly in the field of novel superconducting photon counters since 1997. He has personally designed the commercial instruments of Quantum Opus, including the cryogenic, mechanical, electrical, and electronic subsystems and currently oversees product innovations, development, and production. Dr. Miller also actively performs technical research and development, innovates new commercial products, and is a contributing member and leader in collaboration efforts with advisory technical consortia. He obtained his BA in Mathematics and Physics from Albion College in 1995, his PhD in Physics from Stanford University in 2001, was a postdoc and staff scientist at NIST (Boulder) from 2001-2005, professor of Physics at Albion College from 2005-2016, and has been full time at Quantum Opus since 2014.
Alan Migdall’s interests cover quantum optics with research related to single-photon sources, detectors, processors, and quantum memory for quantum information and computation applications. Efforts involvecorrelated two-photon light,nonlinear optics, parametric downconversion, multi-particle entanglement,randomness generation,and classical and quantum metrology. He implemented a single-photon-detector calibration and verification at one of the best levels of uncertainty yet achieved. Migdall leads the Quantum Optics Group of the Quantum Measurement Division at NIST. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, Optica, and the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland. He has organized conferences and workshops on single-photon detector and source technologies and applications and metrology of that technology. He founded the Single Photon Workshop, which debuted at NIST in 2003 and has continued biannually at metrology and national labs around the world. He was editor of a book entitled Single Photon Generation and Detection (2013).
Dr. Richard Mirinis the Quantum Nanophotonics Group Leader in the Applied Physics Division of NIST. He has been working on single-photon sources and detectors and quantum optical measurements using these devices for almost 20 years. Recent results from his group include the demonstration of tightly focused surface acoustic waves coupled to epitaxial quantum dotsfor microwave-to-optical transduction and the demonstration of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with 98% system detection efficiency at 1550 nm.
Dr.SergeyV. Polyakovis the project leader in Quantum Measurement division, Physical Measurement Laboratory at NIST. His projects aim at developing quantum methods of characterization of faint light with applications ranging from classical and quantum networking to quantum-enabled biophotonics.Sergeycontributed to early research efforts in quantum repeaters. He developed innovative methods of single photon source characterization that leads to in-situ, non-invasive measurement of underlying physics of single-photon emitters. Recently, he invented and developed a new class of optical receivers for classical communications that use quantum measurement. He performed one of the most accurate single photon detector characterizations.Sergeyis a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and has served as a General Chair of CLEO conference (2021), and Nonlinear Photonics topical meeting (2022).
Dr. Dileep V. Reddyearned his Bachelors in Technology from the Electrical Engineering department at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) in India. After continuing at IITM to earn a Masters in Communications and Signal Processing, he moved to Eugene, Oregon in 2010 to pursue graduate school in Quantum Optics under Prof. Michael Raymer. With PhD in hand, he got invited to apply to the CUBoulder physics PREP program for a postdoctoral position. Since he wanted experience with nanofabrication, he took the offer from the group that did pioneering work with superconducting photon detectors such as Transition-Edge Sensors (TES) and Superconducting Nanostrip Single-Photon Detectors (SNSPDs). Dileep currently holds the world record for the most efficient detection of near-IR wavelength photons with fiber coupled SNSPDs. Dileep likes to molt into a new research area every 5 years. In his spare time, he likes rock climbing, BJJ, reading, and tinkering with electronics.
Jeff Shainline explores technologies leveraging the complimentary physics of light and electronics. He is particularly interested in the exploration of superconducting optoelectronic networks for achieving large-scale spiking neural networks. Jeff received the B.S. degree in physics from the University of Colorado in 2005 and the Ph.D. degree from Brown University in 2010. From 2010-2013 he was a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Milos Popovic at the University of Colorado. In 2013 he joined the Quantum Nanophotonics Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. At NIST he led the Physics and Hardware for Intelligence project. Today he is Founder and CEO of Great Sky.
Krister Shalmis an experimental quantum physicist working at the National Institute of Standards and Technologies since 2012. His research focuses on studying the quantum properties of light to develop new quantum networking technologies. He received his PHD in physics from the university of Toronto in 2010, and subsequently performed postdoctoral work at the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo, Canada. Krister's work on entanglement has received widespread international recognition. When Krister isn't in the lab or sharing his love of science, he can be found swing dancing.
Kevin Silvermanis an experimental physicist leading a semiconductor optics laboratory in the Quantum Nanophotonics Group at NIST Boulder. He began working at NIST while earning his Ph.D. in physics at University of Colorado Boulder. He is a recipient of the Dept. of Commerce gold medal and the NIST bronze medal.
Matt Spidellis a physicist in the Sources and Detectors Group of the Applied Physics Division at NIST, leading the Laser Power and Energy Meter Calibration Project. Responsibilities include performing or managing calibration services from single photons to 10 KW+ and ultraviolet to far infrared. In addition, he performs research developing new detector technologies and engineering for improved implementations of secondary, transfer, and primary standards. He also serves as the division’s ISO17025:2017 Quality Manager with multiple roles as an assessor. Prior to NIST, he served multiple roles in the US Air Force including physics instruction, management roles, and mechanical engineering for the C-5 Galaxy and C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft. Matt received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from USAFA, and his MS in Physics from AFIT.
Martin J. Stevensis a NIST Staff Scientist with 17 years of experience working on single-photon sources, entangled-photon sources, and single-photon detectors. He has worked with collaborators around the world implementing these sources and detectors in a variety of experiments, ranging from studies of solid-state and molecular physics to fundamental tests of the quantum nature of light. Dr. Stevens was educated at the University of Minnesota (BS Physics, 1996) and the University of Iowa (Ph.D. Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2004). In 2004 he joined NIST as a postdoc. Since 2007 he has been a NIST Staff Scientist. He is the author of over 50 refereed journal articles and two book chapters.
Scott Sternbergserves as the Executive Director of the CUbit Quantum Initiative at the University of Colorado Boulder where he leads efforts to enhance ӽ紫ý’s leadership in Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST). His work focusses on collaborating with regional universities, federal laboratories, and quantum-intensive companies, and promoting QIST interests at local, regional, and national levels.
Maré Sutphenis currently a Technical Sales Development Representative at Swabian Instruments USA, earned her Bachelor of Science in Physics from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. With a research background in Physics Education, Maré is passionate about creating and adjusting Quantum Physics curricula to incorporate a hands-on approach to improve students’ problem-solving capabilities and ability to build strong learning structures.