Sunil Mittal

Sunil Mittal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, specializing in quantum and topological photonics. He joined Northeastern in 2021 and holds a PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park, alongside master’s degrees in Physics and Optoelectronics. His research focuses on quantum photonics, topological photonics, nonlinear photonics, and two-dimensional materials, with notable contributions to topological frequency combs and photonic quadrupole phases.

Education: PhD in Electrical Engineering (University of Maryland, 2014), MS in Physics and Optoelectronics, and industry experience in optical telecommunications. Research highlights include pioneering work on topological sources of quantum light and non-Hermitian photonics systems.

• Recipient of 2024 and 2022 Stanford University citations (top 2% most-cited scientists)
• Lead co-PI on a $1.5M NSF DMREF grant (2024) for photonic materials development
• Recipient of Northeastern’s FY24 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grant

His Quantum Photonics Lab explores topological photonics applications in quantum computing and optical communication. Recent projects include using deep learning to accelerate photonic material design and studying excitonic Mott insulators in 2D heterostructures.