Dr. Oskar J. Painter
California Institute of Technology

Oskar Painter received his B.S.E.E. from the University of British Columbia in 1994, his Masters Degree of Science from the California Institute of Technology in 1995, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2001.  In 2000 he helped found Xponent Photonics, an optical start-up company developing surface-mount photonics for telecom and data networking applications.  In 2002 he returned to the California Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor in Applied Physics.

    Dr. Painter’s general research interests lie in studying new and interesting ways in which light behaves within micro- and nano-scale dielectric and metallic structures.  Currently, specific areas of research include: semiconductor cavity QED, integrated microphotonic and microwire “atom-chips”, Quantum Cascade lasers, surface-plasmon physics and devices, and silicon optoelectronics.  Dr. Painter will be the co-chair of the upcoming OSA Nanophotonics Meeting in April 2006, and the 7^th International Symposium of Photonic and Electromagnetic Crystal Structures to be held in 2007 in Monterey , CA .