Amol Choudhary

Profile

Amol is a tenured Electrical Engineering Faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in India, where he leads a 15-person team working on integrated photonics, microwave photonics, and laser-source development. He began his academic journey at the Delhi College of Engineering, India, for his undergraduate degree. In 2008, an Erasmus Mundus scholarship enabled him to pursue his passion for photonics through a Master of Science in Photonics from the University of St. Andrews Scotland, Gent University Belgium, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) Belgium. He received his PhD in Optoelectronics at the University of Southampton. He was an EPSRC Doctoral Prize fellow at Southampton and an Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Amol is very passionate about advancing photonics which he sees as a key driver of technology in the 21st century. He has been at the forefront of research and has demonstrated multi-gigahertz femtosecond oscillators employing waveguide laser technology, ultra-high nonlinear gains on chip-scale devices, and state-of-the-art integrated microwave photonic filters. His innovations have led to >150 publications, including multiple post-deadline talks, invited talks, and invited journal papers. He has also delivered >40 invited seminars. His numerous awards include the Optica Ivan P. Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award, the Institute of Engineers India (IEI) Young Engineer Award, and the IIT Delhi teaching excellence award. He is a senior Member of Optica, IEEE, and SPIE and a Life Fellow of the Optical Society of India.

Growing up in India and traveling to different countries to build his career, Amol has learned much from these experiences and diverse perspectives. He developed a passion for teaching and working with students and early career professionals to achieve their potential. He was selected as an Optica Ambassador in 2019 and visited >15 Optica student chapters in developing nations. Amol understands the challenges of building a career, and during his visits, he had detailed discussions about career paths and adapting to change with students. He has also given several talks on presentation skills for non-English speakers. He has supervised >15 postgraduate students who have taken positions in academia, industry, and government laboratories.

Amol’s long association with Optica began as a student chapter committee member at Southampton, and he has taken on various roles in technical program committees of reputed conferences, including CLEO, Latin America Optics and Photonics Conference, and Photonics India. He chairs Optica’s Esther Hoffman Beller Medal selection committee and is an Optica Diversity & Inclusion Advocacy Recognition award selection committee member. He is the chair of the Nonlinear Optics technical group and serves on Optica’s Membership Engagement & Development Council, which deals with all membership services, including student chapters and the local sections. In summary, Amol is passionate about photonics and the Optica community, especially students and young professionals.

Election Statement

I am thrilled to have been nominated to the Board of Directors of our society. Optica holds a very special place in my heart, as I have been a dedicated member of the society for almost 15 years.

I have been active in Optica, from being a student chapter committee member to a conference technical-program committee member and from being the winner of the society’s Ivan P. Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Professional prize to serving on a governance council. I have seen firsthand the incredible impact that Optica has had on the field of optics and photonics, as well as on my career path. Therefore, the opportunity to contribute to such a remarkable community and help shape Optica’s future as a board member is truly an honor.

As an Optica Ambassador, I was privileged to visit more than 15 student chapters in developing nations and to interact with students and early-career professionals. During my visits, I had the invaluable opportunity for detailed and often passionate conversations about their challenges and aspirations. I will support creating resources and services for career development for students and young professionals. I believe that supporting and empowering the next generation of leaders in our field can ensure a bright future for all of us. I will also engage with students and gather their feedback, to serve our students and the early-career community better.

With experience working in six countries and three continents, I understand our global membership’s diverse needs and perspectives. I am passionate about ensuring that all members of our community have a voice in the future direction of Optica. I will strive to improve awareness of various funding opportunities offered by Optica and the Optica Foundation in developing nations. I will ensure that more opportunities are made available in these regions, including opportunities to access testbeds in collaborating industry and academic institutions, organization of high-quality conferences in these regions and more scholarship opportunities. I will also encourage “Optica Week,” which will promote optics and include professional-development programs and practical skill-development workshops. Together, we can create a more inclusive and collaborative society representing the best of our field.

Last but not least, I feel that Optica can act as an interface between academia and industry to bring them closer together in a feedback loop, where new academic research determines product development in industry and new industrial requirements determine the academic research areas. To this end, I will promote several initiatives, including outreach programs, where student chapters and postdocs will have opportunities to develop strong industry collaborations. Furthermore, I plan to increase membership programs catering to industry members at the early- and mid-career stages.

My passion and dedication to this society extends far beyond this election. I want to work with all of you to benefit our community, which brings light to our daily lives. Thank you for considering my candidacy.