People

Principal Investigator

Mengjie Yu

Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley

mengjie.yu [at] berkeley.edu | Website | Yu CV

Bachelor at Zhejiang University, Optical Engineering, 2008-2012
PhD at Cornell University, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2012 -2018
Staff Research Associate at Columbia University, Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, 2015-2018
Postdoc at Harvard University, School of Engineering and Applied Science, 2018-2021

Graduate Students

Clayton Cheung

5th year PhD student

cycheung [at] berkeley.edu

BS: University of Arizona
MS: University of Southern California
Research Interests: Quantum and nonlinear photonics

Reshma Kopparapu

4th year PhD student

reshma [at] berkeley.edu

BS: University of Southern California
MS: University of Southern California
Research Interests: Integrated nonlinear photonics

Ran Yin

4th year PhD student

ranyin74 [at] berkeley.edu

BS: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
MS: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Research Interests: Nonlinear photonics

Kaiwen Xue

3rd year PhD student*

kaiwenxue [at] berkeley.edu

BS: University of California, Santa Barbara
MS: University of Southern California
Research interests: Optical computing and optical neural networks

*Jointly advised by Zaijun Chen

Kamila Kunes

3rd year PhD student

kunes [at] berkeley.edu

BS: University of California, Los Angeles
Research interests: Integrated photonics and optical computing

Mihir Chaudhari

2nd year PhD student

mihirc [at] berkeley.edu

BS: University of Texas at Austin
Research interests: Integrated photonics, squeezed light, optomechanics

Postdoctoral Scholars

Chunho Lee

Visiting Scholar (2025 – Present)

Postdoc Fellow (2022 – 2025)

chunhol [at] berkeley.edu

BS: Seoul National University
MS: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
PhD: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Postdoc: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Research Interests: Active on-chip devices

Xinyi Ren

Postdoc Fellow (2023 – Present)

xinyir [at] berkeley.edu

BS in Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications
PhD in Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
Research interests: Integrated photonics, electro-optic frequency comb, dual-comb spectroscopy, photoacoustic/optomechanical spectroscopy

Yue Yu

Postdoc Fellow (2023 – Present)

yyu0919 [at] berkeley.edu

BS in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
PhD in The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Research interests: Integrated photonics, optomechanics, and quantum transduction

Ian Christen

Postdoc Fellow (2025 – Present)

ichr [at] berkeley.edu

BS in Physics and Mathematics, University of Washington
PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research interests: Integrated nonlinear photonics, frequency combs and pulse compression, ultrastable frequency references, quantum information, Fourier holography, fabrication-tolerant photonic design, experimental automation