Dive Into the New Age of Light
The Team
Vivek Raghunathan
Co-Founder and CEO
Vivek has over 15 years of experience in silicon photonics. He was a Sr. Principal Engineer, Product Architect and Program Leader for Integrated Silicon Photonics at Broadcom driving key core technology development required to co-package optics with switches and demonstrated industry’s first 25.6T Ethernet switch co-packaged with silicon photonics chiplets. Prior to joining Broadcom, he was a Principal Engineer at Rockley Photonics where he led silicon photonics product integration for their data-com product line. He started his career at Intel where he led next generation GPU to HBM interconnect technology development and the commercialization of their first Silicon-photonics-based transceivers. He received his PhD from MIT in Material Science and Engineering.
Alexander Gaeta
Co-Founder & President
Alex is a world leader in quantum and nonlinear photonics. He performed many of the key demonstrations of nonlinear optical devices in silicon photonics, including parametric amplifiers and optical frequency comb generators. He also holds appointments in the departments of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. He was awarded the Townes Medal in 2019 and is a Fellow of Optica, the American Physical Society, and IEEE.
Yoshi Okawachi
Co-Founder and R&D Lead
Yoshi has over 10 years of research expertise in Silicon photonics and optical frequency combs. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed journal papers and is a co-inventor on 6 patents. He is a Fellow of Optica, the 2017 Optica Ambassador, and is the recipient of the 2017 Tingye Li Innovation Price. He received his PhD from Cornell University in Applied Physics.
Ferdinand Mendoza
Principal Mechanical Engineer
Ferdinand has 10 years of experience designing data center equipment and optical communications products at Lumentum, Infinera, and Cerebras Systems. He received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from San Jose State University.
Asher Novick
Senior Silicon Photonics R&D Engineer
Asher has over 6 years of combined work experience in fiber optics and silicon photonics R&D and is the co-author of over 40 conference, journal, and patent publications in the field of optical communication and connectivity. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, leading the first-ever integrated Kerr comb-driven silicon photonic transmitter demonstration as a part of his work on silicon photonic interconnects and devices. Prior to Columbia University, Asher worked in Panduit’s Fiber R&D Lab, developing innovative optical solutions for customers’ data center and enterprise connectivity needs.
Andres Gil Molina
Senior Photonics Engineer
Andres has more than 10 years of research experience in laser integration, nonlinear optics, Silicon photonics, and optical communications. He has co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications and co-invented 3 patents. He worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University, where he led the development of a novel high-power electrically-pumped microcomb sources. Andres earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Campinas.
Maarten Hattink
Silicon Photonics Systems and Control Design Engineer
Maarten has over 8 years of experience working with optical and electronic systems. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University where he developed control systems for optical circuits and coordinated the development of integrated photonic transceiver prototypes. Prior to studying at Columbia University, Maarten worked at Prodrive Technologies, developing software and FPGAs for electronic test automation.
Brian West
Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer
Brian has 10 years of experience in silicon photonics and silica-on-silicon chip design and layout, for telecom, high-performance computing, and LiDAR applications. Previously, he taught physics and photonics at a Bachelor of Photonics program in Canada. He has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and one book chapter, with nearly 1000 citations, and 2 patents awarded or pending. He received a MS and PhD in Optical Sciences from University of Arizona, an MS in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College, and a B.Eng in Engineering Physics from McMaster University.
Keren Bergman
Co-Founder
Keren is a world leader on photonic interconnect architectures. Her work is foundational to reducing energy consumption in computing with optical data movement. Keren holds a faculty appointment in the Electrical Engineering Department at Columbia University. She is the recipient of the IEEE Photonics Engineering Award and is a Fellow of Optica and IEEE.
Michal Lipson
Co-Founder
Michal is a pioneer of silicon photonics. Several of her innovations are currently standard offerings in photonic foundries around the world, including microring modulators and nanotaper couplers. She is a co-founder of Voyant Photonics and sits on the Board of Poet Technologies. She holds appointments in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Columbia University. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of Optica and IEEE.
Board of Advisors
Paul Negus
Negus brings with him over 30 years of management and business development specializing in technology startups in new and emerging markets. His expertise in forecasting, budgeting, restructuring, outsourcing, global contract negotiations, and profit and loss served him in revitalizing operations and delivering growth for a number of global organizations.
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​A versatile, resourceful leader, Negus has held a variety of leadership roles throughout his career, including Vice President in the Data Center Group and the general manager of Connectivity Group Engineering and Operations at Intel Corporation, vice president of operations at LightWire Inc., prior to and after its acquisition by Cisco Systems; Vice President of global operations at Gemfire Corporation; vice president of operations and customer service at ONStor, Inc.; Vice President of worldwide operations at Avanex Corporation, Inc.; and Vice President and general manager of operations at IOA Corporation (now Clerios, Inc.). Earlier in his career, he served as director of customer engineering, quality and information resources and director of SMCC software operations and inter-company business at Sun Microsystems Inc., as well as the business development manager focused on development efforts throughout Asia, the Middle East, and South America for Philips Electronics. He also served as a captain in the British Armed Forces.