Joshua Burrow

Dr. Joshua A. Burrow is a Hibbitt Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Engineering at Brown University. He earned his B.S. degrees in Physics and Mathematics with a concentration in Engineering from Morehouse College, a liberal arts HBCU located in Atlanta, GA. He then obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees as a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow in the Electro-Optics and Photonics Department at the University of Dayton under the direction of Profs. Jay Mathews and Imad Agha, respectively. His graduate school work spanned a myriad of topics within light-matter interactions including plasmonic metasurfaces for biological sensing and 5G communications, as well as designing and developing high-speed tunable photonic materials such as chalcogenide phase change materials to dynamically tune properties of light at the nanoscale.

Since joining the PROBE Laboratory led by Prof. Kimani C. Toussaint Jr’s, Joshua has expanded his research to bio-photonics where he noninvasively investigates a variety of inorganic and organic systems, at mesoscopic scales, through the development of advanced optical microscopy techniques. Joshua pursues several other research topics including optical tweezing, non-linear optics, and physiological monitoring using structured light and spatially varying polarized wavefronts. Concurrently, he is also working with 2022 Amplify Scholar, Ms. Rutendo Jakachira to develop an equitable and accurate pulse oximeter for black individuals in clinical settings.

Additionally, he is and has been actively involved in student development and outreach for many years throughout his career. He was a two-term president of Optica chapters both at Morehouse College and the University of Dayton. Most notably, he co-organized with Purdue University the IONS Midwest-US 2019 international conference that hosted over 100 students. He has attended Congressional Visits, advocating for optics and photonics. Presently, he serves as co-advisor to the Brown University Optics Society (BRUNOS). Joshua is also a past student representative and executive board member of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and the co-founder of the Student Leadership Development Summit. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball, traveling, and trying new cuisines.