Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics and Biophotonics Laboratory

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       Our research thrives on combining methods and expertise from different scientific backgrounds.

The use of nonlinear optics, femtosecond laser pulse control and appropriately designed (micro and nano) structures in new materials provides a rich field of research and offers unprecedented opportunity for technological advances and new diagnostic approaches.

We are specifically interested in engineered and biomimetic optical materials (such as photonic crystals and photonic crystal fibers) and novel/unconventional organic, sustainable optical materials for photonics and optoelectronics. 

In particular, in close collaboration with resident biopolymer expertise, we have pioneered silk optics and we are re-inventing silk as a green material for photonics and high technology applications.

We aim to use these tools for research in the physical and biomedical sciences. The research context is necessarily interdisciplinary and establishes natural links among multiple and diverse fields (such as Physics, Engineering, Biology, Medicine, Material Sciences and Chemistry).

As a consequence, we are actively engaged in collaborations across departments and outside Tufts to develop ways to approach a problem from multiple vantage points.

We especially value providing our students with the opportunity to actively seek these connections and embrace different perspectives for problem solving.  We will also try, as much as possible, to encourage an opportunistic environment for research rather than a deterministic one.

Our goal is provide an environment that will foster the individual's scientific curiosity and creativity no matter how fundamental or applied it may turn out to be.