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Dr. Samuel Serna Otálvaro

Samuel Serna Otalvo smiling in front of a white board
Assistant Professor of Physics, Photonics and Optical Engineering
Mohler-Faria Science and Mathematics Center, Room 225

BS, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín, Colombia
MA, Friedrich Schieller University, Germany
MA, Paris-Sud University, Institute d’Optique Graduate School, France
PhD, Paris-Saclay University, France

Dr. Serna received his degree in physics engineering from the National University of Colombia, Sede Medellin, in 2010 and a double master’s degree from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany, in photonics and the Institute d’Optique Graduate School Paris, France, in optics, matter and plasmas” (Erasmus Mundus Master scholarship: Optics in Science & Technology -OpSciTech), in 2013. During these studies, he worked in digital in-line holography, diffractive optical elements and integrated photonic devices.

He earned his PhD in 2016 at the University of Paris Sud and was postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (C2N-Université Paris-Sud-Université Paris-Saclay) where he designed, fabricated and characterized passive silicon photonics structures and developed novel techniques to test and exploit their third order nonlinear susceptibilities. He was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is explored novel hybrid devices in the integrated photonics platform for telecom and midIR functionalities. Dr. Serna and BSU are part of the LEAP network, bringing industry, government and academia together for the use of integrated photonics and optical technologies. Dr. Serna is an Assistant Professor at BSU since September 2019.

He is an OSA Ambassador 2019 and a 2021 SPIE Career Lab Editorial member

Area of Expertise

Integrated Photonics, Nonlinear Optics, Optical Materials, Ultrafast Optics, Nanofabrication, and Photonic Crystals