Yannick Salamin

Dr. Yannick Salamin is an Assistant Professor at CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida (UCF). His research focuses on quantum properties of light and nonlinear optical systems, particularly exploring quantum states of light, macroscopic quantum phenomena, and applications in quantum technology. His work utilizes optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) to generate and characterize quantum states, aiming to advance computing and metrology.

Dr. Salamin holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland (2010), an M.S. from Zhejiang University (2014), and a Dr.Sc. from ETH Zurich (2019). His postdoctoral research at MIT under Prof. Marin Soljačić furthered his expertise in quantum nonlinear photonics.

His research group develops systems to harness quantum vacuum noise for probabilistic computing and machine learning. Key areas include controlling nonlinear driven-dissipative systems, biasing quantum vacuums, and creating macroscopic probability distributions. Recent work includes generating large Fock states and squeezed states via nonlinear bound states in the continuum.

• Research Themes: Quantum vacuum engineering, nonlinear photonics, stochastic computing, and quantum metrology.
• Applications: Quantum computing, advanced sensors, and probabilistic machine learning.

Dr. Salamin has received prestigious awards including the 2025 Ralph E. Powe Award, ABB Research Prize (2021), and the ETH Medal (2020). His lab includes three Ph.D. advisees and multiple undergraduate researchers.

He collaborates widely, with publications in Nature Photonics, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Current projects emphasize scalable quantum systems and novel photonic devices.