Demetrios Christodoulides

Demetrios Christodoulides is the Steven and Kathryn Sample Chair in Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). Previously, he held the Cobb Family Endowed Chair and Pegasus Professorship at the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL), University of Central Florida (UCF) for 20 years. He earned his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1986, followed by a postdoc at Bellcore. His research focuses on nonlinear optical phenomena, synthetic materials, optical solitons, and quantum electronics. He has published over 450 papers and received prestigious awards like the OSA Max Born Award (2018) and R.W. Wood Prize (2011).

• Education: Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University (1986)
• Professional History: Bellcore (postdoc), Lehigh University (faculty 1988–2002), UCF (2002–2022), USC (2022–present)

His research interests span nonlinear wave propagation, optical thermodynamics, and structured optical systems. Key contributions include work on optical solitons and photon-gas thermodynamics. He leads a dynamic research group exploring topics like non-Hermitian photonics and spatiotemporal light fields.

Awards:

• OSA Max Born Award (2018)
• OSA R.W. Wood Prize (2011)
• Fellow of OSA and APS
• ISI Highly Cited Researcher

Advising & Labs: Advised over 20 PhD and MS students. His lab focuses on nonlinear optics, quantum transport, and advanced optical materials. Collaborations include experimental studies on photon-gas dynamics and topological photonics.

Future Work: Expanding research on quantum optics, non-Hermitian systems, and ultrafast photonics technologies.