Join Us
For current or prospective Ph.D. students: If you are interested in joining me as a Ph.D. student, please reach out to me with a list of your publications or projects. Currently, we have 1 PhD position open for Fall 2025 semester matriculation. My lab is built on the unique synergies of the following three research areas. Typically, students are encouraged to first specialize in one area, and then expand to the others based on their career development needs:
- Photonics: You enjoy the process of overcoming challenges in experiments, which typically involves careful experimental design and planning, meticulous handling of sensitive instruments, and a lot of troubleshooting to get things to work. Prior experience with either free-space optics or nanophotonics is a plus.
- Computation: You’re keen on learning programming and machine learning to solve scientific problems, which involves in-depth understanding of the underlying scientific problem and lots of coding and debugging. Prior experience in Python and training of state-of-the-art machine-learning models is a plus.
- Biomedicine: You’re drawn to specific biological questions (e.g., in neuroscience, immunology, or genomics) that can be best studied by optical imaging. You wish to develop new technologies to solve real biological problems. Exposure to a specific area of biological research is a plus.
If you plan to apply to a Ph.D. program that starts in Fall 2025, you can consider applying to ECE Ph.D. program (in electrophysics track) and/or BME Ph.D. Program at Boston University. Both deadlines are December 15, 2024. When applying, you will need to indicate potential rotation labs. If you choose to rotate in my lab, you’ll first work on a technical project that exercises both your experimental and computational skills. Keep in mind that this rotation project could evolve into, or inspire, a full Ph.D. thesis.
As a Ph.D. student in ECE or BME, your tuition is covered by BU, and you also receive a stipend for your research or teaching activities (ECE PhD handbook; BME PhD handbook). Meanwhile, you are strongly encouraged to apply to internal and external graduate fellowships (here; p.10 in the ECE PhD handbook). A unique benefit of attending Boston University is its strategic location, which provides you with unparalleled access to academic resources, networking opportunities, and cultural enrichment.
A word on why to pursue a Ph.D. and what to expect from it
Pursuing a Ph.D. is a journey to develop one's scholarship as an independent researcher, a quality required for academic and certain industry positions. A proven approach to achieving this goal is by conducting an original study under the guidance of a thesis advisor. Ideally, a good academic study should be developed to address questions that will likely lead to discoveries unexpected from exisiting body of knowledge, and an impactful work should aim to inspire future research. The selection and completion of the Ph.D. thesis typically requires close collaboration between the trainee and the advisor. Ph.D. candidates possessing the following qualities tend to do well in this endeavor:- Scientific motivation: You are intrigued by a certain class of scientific problems and have the desire to create your own artifact (methods, discoveries, invention, or theory).
- Research instinct: You embrace the open-ended nature of research, and are willing to master the art of navigating uncertainties, using literature, discussion, and independent thinking as your guide.
- Input skills: You enjoy keeping up with the latest research trends in your field by consistently browsing papers and attending relevant talks.
- Output skills: You wish to develop writing and presentation skills to effectively communicate your findings and ideas to the scientific community and the broader audience.
- Teamwork skills: You thrive in a collaborative environment, valuing knowledge-sharing, learning from feedback (from peers, superiors, and subordinates alike), and close collaborations with colleagues to achieve objectives that might be challenging to tackle solo.
For prospective post-docs: For those interested in conducing postdoctoral research with me, please contact me with your CV and publicaiton list.
Compared to Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers enjoy a higher degree of academic freedom and autonomy, while also taking on more responsibilities in project management, student mentoring, and lab development. Being a founding member of a new lab is a unique experience: one has the opportunity to help shape the lab’s research directions while developing a broad vision of the research landscape. To be successful in such a role, a candidate should already possess a skill set in a research field and a semi-mature approach to conducting research. If you are interested, please contact me with details about the skills you already have, the skills you wish to acquire, and your career goals. Additionally, it is highly recommended for post-doc candidates to explore eligible fellowships (for instance, here and here). It is crucial to plan early for these fellowships, as they sometimes have deadlines that precede the completion of one’s Ph.D., and they usually require the candidate to develop a research proposal in collaboration with a prospective advisor.
For master and undergraudate students: We welcome motivated master students and ambitious undergraduates who seek research experience, ideally for preparing for a future career in research. Please contact me with your CV, including your prior research experience, skills, and publication.
For visiting scholars: We are open to hosting those who are interested in our research. Please contact me directly to discuss about options.