The Optica Foundation announced Dr. Joshua Burrow, Hibbitt Postdoctoral Fellow in Engineering from Professor Kimani Toussaint’s PROBE Lab, is one of ten exceptional early-career members who will serve as the 2023 class of Optica Ambassadors. The Optica Foundation identifies an annual class of Ambassadors as part of a program to elevate leaders early in their careers.
As an emerging leader in the optics and photonics community, Burrow will provide career advice, technical knowledge, and mentorship to students and early career professionals in the field by supporting professional development events at meetings and engaging with his community. He will receive a lifetime Ambassador distinction visible in the member directory for his efforts to serve the greater optics and photonics community.
This year’s class will join previous honorees (2016-2022) in their mission to support student chapters and host professional development events. Additionally, he is charged with promoting the importance of a diverse and inclusive science ecosystem and bridging connections between academia and industry.
“Since 2016, our Ambassadors have provided career advice, technical knowledge, and mentorship for our student members,” said Michal Lipson, 2023 Optica President. “Our guiding principles of inclusivity, impact, and innovation are embedded in this program to reinforce our core values in the next generation of scientists, engineers, and corporate leaders.”
In the PROBE lab, Burrow helps develop novel instrumentation and technologies that solve problems of significance to both biology and nanotechnology, particularly as they impact society. He is currently vetting a novel pulse oximeter technology in a clinical study that started earlier this year at the intensive care unit at The Miriam Hospital. He is also collaborating with Professors Jimmy Xu and Dan Mittleman’s groups to advance emerging technologies including non-linear frequency converters and reconfigurable beam-steering devices based on chalcogenide phase change materials (PCMs). PCMs offer a route to develop compact, high-speed, low power consumption light manipulators enabled by a non-volatile and reversible transition between an amorphous and crystalline state with drastic differences in optical properties.
This semester he is teaching ENGN 1560 - Optics, a first course for undergraduates on electromagnetic waves and photonics.
Burrow recently helped establish the Optica Chapter at Brown, and serves as co-advisor to the group with Toussaint. He is also organizing a Student Leadership Development Workshop in March hosting 40 graduate students for the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) at the Optica Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Burrow earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics from Morehouse College in 2012, and his master’s and Ph.D. as a Ford Foundation Fellow from the University of Dayton in Electro-Optics in 2017 and 2021, respectively, joining the PROBE lab in October of 2021.
Established in 2002, the Optica Foundation carries out charitable activities in support of the society’s student and early career communities. It cultivates the next generation of leaders and innovators as they navigate advanced degree programs and become active members of research, engineering and business worldwide. The foundation also works to secure the endowments for Optica’s awards and honors programs.
Optica (formerly OSA), Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving, and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students, and others interested in the science of light. Optica’s renowned publications, meetings, online resources, and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement.
Engineering’s Toussaint, Mittleman, Professor Arto Nurmikko, and Dean of the College and Professor Rashid Zia are all Fellows of Optica.
Date
February 14, 2023