Dr. Anu Agarwal received her doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from Boston University in 1994, where she investigated the spatial extent of point defect interactions in silicon.

 

She has been at MIT’s Microphotonics Center since 1994, except for a short (2001-2004) stint at Clarendon Photonics, where she was a part of a team of engineers developing a novel optical filter.

 

As a Principal Research Scientist at MIT, she developed integrated Si-CMOS compatible linear and non-linear materials for photonic devices, especially in the mid-IR regime, for hyperspectral imaging and chem-bio sensing, because most chemical and biological toxins have their fingerprints in this range. She has over 100 journals and refereed conference publications, 6 awarded patents, and 5 pending patents. Her work on MIR materials and devices is creating a planar, integrated, Si-CMOS-compatible microphotonics platform which will enable on-chip imaging and sensing applications.

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As AIM Academy's leader of LEAPs (Labs for Education and Application Prototypes), she works closely with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to identify potential investments in LEAPs and build a LEAP network to train a workforce in integrated photonics and support AIM Photonics' MPW (multi-project wafer) and packaging facilities in New York.