Alumni

Ben Wilson (Ph.D.) bewilson@u.washington.edu Ben is a native of Kennewick, WA, but has lived several years in Portugal and the United Arab Emirates. He enjoys playing music on a variety of instruments and having fun with his wife and daughter. Ben earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from UW in 2005. He did research several years with the PNNL glass laboratory in Richland, WA before joining the UWEE Photonics Lab as an undergraduate. Ben's research focuses on photonics applications of flexible nano-structures, which includes their potential use in sensors and polarization controllers.

Mike Hegg (Ph.D.) heggm@u.washington.edu Mike earned a B.S. degree in Physics and Physics-Engineering from Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA in 2002. Subsequently, he earned a M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA in 2004, where he worked on non-invasive fringing electric field sensors for materials characterization. Mike joined the group in the fall of 2004 and earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2008, focusing on the design and fabrication of nano-scale quantum dot phototransistors and photodetectors. He is currently employed by Intellectual Ventures in Bellevue, WA In his spare time, Mike enjoys coaching high school track and field, bicycling, hiking, amateur astronomy, reading, listening to music, and discussing science.

Xiaoyu Miao (Ph.D.) xiaoyu@ee.washington.edu Xiaoyu came from China and he is a fourth-year graduate student in UWEE. He got his master degree from UW in June 2006, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree. He is mainly working on the NSF and NIH funded projects related to micro and nano manipulations using surface plasmon as a tool. Before joining UW, he got his B.S. from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China in July 2003. Between 2003 and 2004, he worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Biophysics in Tsinghua University. His primary research interests include nanophotonics, plasmonics, optofluidics and the interface between biology and nanotechnology. When not at the campus, he enjoys watching NBA games and listening to various kinds of music. He also has a dream to become a professional photographer! Check out his personal homepage here.

Jean Wang (Ph.D.) cjeanwang@hotmail.com Jean earned a B.S. degree with honors in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA in 2001. She then took a two year hiatus to work in the Photonics section at Northrop Grumman Space Technology, formerly TRW, Redondo Beach, CA and recommenced her studies at the University of Washington in fall of 2003. In 2004 and 2007, she received her M.S. and Ph.D., respectively. Her thesis work centered on nanophotonics and in particular, sub-diffraction self-assembled quantum dot waveguides. During graduate study, she was a recipient of the Boeing, Intel Ph.D. and NSF Graduate Fellowships. Jean is now working at Intellectual Ventures, an IP investment firm in Bellevue, Washington.

Nathaniel Burt (M.S.) nburt@ee.washington.edu Nathaniel grew up in Salina, Kansas, as the youngest of five children. He graduated from Kansas State University in May 2005 with a B.S. in electrical engineering. As an M.S. student, he studied electro-optic polymers and their applications alongside several Ph.D. students from Dr. Antao Chen's research group. His research interests include nanophotonics, fabrication techniques, and device physics. In his free time, Nathaniel enjoys playing a number of sports, including tennis and basketball, and listening to a wide variety of music.

Chih-Cheng Cheng (Postdoc) jcheng@u.washington.edu Chih-Cheng Cheng obtained his Ph.D degree in Microelectromechanical Systems at National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan in 2006. He received the B.S. in Physics from National Cheng Kung University in 1993 and the M.S. in Electro-Optics at National Chiao Tung University in 1999. Dr. Cheng has 8 years of working experiences in the Hsinchu Science Park involving semiconductor, LCD and photomask technologies. He is currently studying bio-photonics in this group. His professional interests are in liquid crystal, micro-optics, electrowetting, dielectrophoresis and liquid droplet lens. Also, his research interest includes nanophotonics. In his spare time, Chih-Cheng spends his time doing sports or listening to music.

Haojie Liao (Undergrad) tele120@u.washington.edu Haojie was born in Neijiang in the Southwest of China and was an exchange student at the Univ. of Washington from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. Haojie will receive his bachelor degree in 2006 and plans to continue his studies in the electronics field in grad school. Haojie was working on a part of the DEP project, focusing on the geometrical effect of the metal nanoshell-dielectric core which may shift the resonance frequency of nanoshells over a range of tens of nanometers.

Jodi Sprague (Undergrad) spraguej@u.washington.edu Jodi studied in both the EE and Japanese departments at the UW. She spent the 2002-2003 academic year studying at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. She hopes to keep finding ways of integrating her two degrees. Jodi worked on optical characterization of bioluminescence during her time in the group.

Mei Liu (Undergrad) meiliu@u.washington.edu Mei spent the first five years of her life in Harbin, China, before moving to the lovely city of Vancouver, BC Canada, and then finally arriving in the United States. She graduated from Skyview High School and Clark College in 2004 and got her BSEE at the University of Washington in spring 2007. After graduating from UW, Mei plans on pursuing a M.D./Ph.D. degree by combining a passion for engineering, medicine, and nanotechnology. Mei worked on the project of characterizing the dielectric constant of Listeria monocytogenes, an intracellular bacteria pathogen, using optical interferometry.

Toshiyasu Kanetaka (Visiting Scholar) tk34@u.washington.edu Toshiyasu earned his BS and MS degree in engineering from Nagoya University, Japan. He then joined the Japan Patent Office (The JPO) in 1997 and became a patent examiner in 2001. In the JPO, he belonged to Optical Devices Division and examined patent applications related to laser diodes, LEDs, lasers, photodetectors and such. Being selected as one of the members of JPO to study abroad, he was with the group for one year starting from July 2006 to July 2007.