{"id":13,"date":"2017-06-15T17:13:28","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T17:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/kevinmiller\/current-courses\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T10:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T15:17:07","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr. Sharon Weiss<\/h2>\n

\"SMW4\"<\/p>\n

Professor Sharon Weiss<\/a> is a Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Engineering, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics, and Director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. She received her Ph.D. degree in Optics at the University of Rochester. Her areas of interest include silicon photonics, biosensors, and hybrid nanomaterials. Professor Weiss\u2019s honors and awards include the PECASE, NSF CAREER, ARO Young Investigator, and IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Award. She is a fellow of Optica, SPIE, and AAAS.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PhD Students<\/h2>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

Yanrong Zhang<\/strong>
\nYanrong received her B.S. in physics from Henan Normal University in 2017 and her M.S. in condensed matter physics from Nankai University in 2020. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, and her current research is focused on photonic crystals for high-sensitivity biosensors and ultra-fast spectroscopy of optical modulators.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Whittington_Headshot_2_2023<\/p>\n

Christopher Whittington<\/strong>
\nChris received his B.A. in physics from Clark University in 2022. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Interdisciplinary Material Science (IMS) program studying photonic crystals for quantum technologies, modulators, and biosensing applications.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"SorenSoren Smail<\/strong>
\nSoren received her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Cincinnati in 2022. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science (IMS) and is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Her research focuses on surface modifications to porous silicon for biosensing applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ginny\"<\/p>\n

Huijin (Ginny) An<\/strong>
\nHuijin received her B.E. in Nano-Bio Engineering from Incheon National University in 2021. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Material Science (IMS) from Vanderbilt University studying developing porous silicon biosensing platform in various applications.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Anurag\"<\/p>\n

Anurag Veluri<\/strong>
\nAnurag received his B.S. in Electronics from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in 2019 and his M.S. in RF and Photonics from IIT Guwahati in 2021. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering studying integrated photonics and radiation effects on photonic devices.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"23-025-2577Nathaniel Karom<\/strong>
\nNathan received his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Allegheny College in 2023. He is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Physics studying the effects of space radiation on photonic devices.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Zachary Martin<\/strong>
\nZack received his B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Lafayette College in 2021. He then worked as an electronics engineer for the U.S. Army. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering to develop biosensing platforms to quantify major depressive disorders.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Emanuela (Emi) Rigilioni<\/strong>
\nEmi received her B.S. in Chemistry from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2024. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science (IMS), and her current research focuses on photonic crystals for various applications.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Undergraduate Members<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Any interested undergraduate students may contact Prof. Weiss to discuss research opportunities!
\n<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nView former group members<\/strong><\/summary>\n

Former Members<\/h2>\n

Rafael Rodas<\/p>\n

Kellen (KP) Arnold, Ph.D (2026)<\/p>\n

Eden Teo<\/p>\n

Jillian Hornby<\/p>\n

Simon Ward, Ph.D.(2024)<\/p>\n

Alex Oh<\/p>\n

Rabeb Layouni, Ph.D.(2023)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Juliana Yang<\/p>\n

Joshua Allen<\/p>\n

Sami Halimi, Ph.D. (2022)<\/a><\/p>\n

Tengfei Cao, Ph.D. (2021)<\/a><\/p>\n

Landen Ryder, Ph.D. (2021)<\/a><\/p>\n

Francis Afzal, Ph.D. (2020)<\/a><\/p>\n

Zhongyuan Fu<\/a><\/p>\n

Hayat Abdurahman<\/a><\/p>\n

Brendan Grigg<\/a><\/p>\n

Mohammad Ahsanul Kabir<\/a><\/p>\n

Zibo Gong<\/a><\/p>\n

Emre Kanli<\/a><\/p>\n

Joshua Fain, Ph.D. (2019)<\/a><\/p>\n

Moinul Choudhury:<\/a><\/p>\n

Caitlin Carfano<\/a><\/p>\n

Kevin Miller, Ph.D. (2018)<\/a><\/p>\n

Vijayashree Parsi Sreenivas, M.S. (2017)<\/a><\/p>\n

Yiliang Zhao, Ph.D. (2017)<\/a><\/p>\n

Shuren Hu, Ph.D. (2016)<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelsey (Beavers) Mayo, Ph.D. (2016)<\/a><\/p>\n

Gilbert Rodriguez, Ph.D. (2016)<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeremy Mares, Ph.D. (Post-Doc)<\/a><\/p>\n

Girija Gaur, Ph.D. (2015)<\/a><\/p>\n

Suruj Deka<\/a><\/p>\n

Petr Markov, Ph.D. (2015)<\/a><\/p>\n

Shweta Bhandaru, Ph.D. (2015)<\/a><\/p>\n

Kun Qin, M.S. (2014)<\/a><\/p>\n

Judson Ryckman, Ph.D. (2013)<\/a><\/p>\n

Yang Jiao, Ph.D. (2012)<\/a><\/p>\n

Sarah Claiborne<\/p>\n

Kyle Zufelt<\/a><\/p>\n

Jennifer Lawrie<\/p>\n

Xing Wei, Ph.D. (2012)<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Kang, Ph.D. (2011)<\/a><\/p>\n

Jon Gosnell, Ph.D. (2010)<\/a><\/p>\n

Guoguang Rong<\/p>\n

Nicolas Bouchonville<\/p>\n

Matt Greenhall<\/p>\n

Nur Aminah Hamzah<\/p>\n

Talbot Hansum<\/p>\n

David Harju<\/p>\n

Blake Hooper<\/p>\n

Anne Killough<\/p>\n

Nur Dayana Abd Rahman<\/p>\n

Abdul Hanis Ramli<\/p>\n

Miguel Roncal<\/p>\n

Alex Stramel<\/p>\n

Lutalo Webb<\/p>\n

Ran Yan, M.S. (2008)<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Zadrozny<\/p>\n

Parker Gould<\/p>\n

Chris Phare<\/p>\n

Tyler Whittle<\/p>\n

Troy Brown<\/p>\n

Farah Farhana Iskandar<\/p>\n

Amelia Cousins<\/p>\n

Brooke Van Dusen<\/p>\n

Ryan Gunn<\/p>\n

Azreena Ahmad Shukri<\/p>\n

Brian Auerbach<\/p>\n

Nishant Biswas<\/p>\n

Dylan McQuaide<\/p>\n<\/details>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sharon Weiss Professor Sharon Weiss is a Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Engineering, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics, and Director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. She received her Ph.D. degree in Optics at the University of Rochester. Her areas of interest include silicon photonics, biosensors, and hybrid nanomaterials. Professor Weiss\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7529,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7529"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":174,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vuphotonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}