Welcome to the Youngblood Photonics Lab at Pitt

Our research combines unique optoelectronic materials with scalable photonic circuits to create new platforms for low-latency machine learning, reconfigurable photonic devices, and precision biosensing. Key to our work is a fundamental understanding of light-matter interaction at the nanoscale and use of advanced nanofabrication techniques to address major challenges facing these disciplines. The following areas of research in our group are: 1) Programmable Photonic Devices and Architectures for Machine Learning; 2) Waveguide-Integrated Circuits for Biosensing; and 3) Waveguide-Integrated 2D Materials for High Performance Optoelectronics.

News:

Nic defends his PhD dissertation!

Posted on January 26, 2026

Congratulations to Dr. Nicholas Nobile who successfully defended his dissertation titled, “Full System Development of Reconfigurable Photonic In-memory Compute Systems” on January 8! Nic will be joining Sandia National Labs as a postdoctoral fellow following his graduation. We wish him all the best in the Land of Enchantment!
Tags: graduate students graduation

Nathan receives prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award

Posted on January 13, 2026

Our lab is thrilled to announce that Nathan has been honored with the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation! This prestigious €60,000 award, given to approximately 20 renowned academics worldwide each year, recognizes Nathan’s significant contributions to the field of optical computing and the lasting... [Read More]
Tags: photonic computing optical computing international collaboration

Sadra defends his PhD dissertation!

Posted on July 11, 2025

Congratulations to Dr. Sadra Rahimi Kari who successfully defended his dissertation titled, “Advanced Photonic Hardware for AI Acceleration: Memory, Processing, and Modulation” on July 11! Sadra will be joining UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral fellow in photonic computing following his graduation. We wish him all the best!
Tags: graduate students graduation

New multifunctional optical memory published in Optica

Posted on January 10, 2025

Our collaborative work entitled “High-speed multifunctional photonic memory on a foundry-processed photonic platform” is now published in Optica! In this work, we demonstrate that both volatile fine-tuning and nonvolatile course-tuning of photonic devices can be achieved within a single device using a PN junction and low-loss phase-change materials. This can... [Read More]
Tags: photonic computing optical memory publications

Daniel Vaz receives 2023 PQI Graduate Fellowship

Posted on November 6, 2023

Congratulations to group member Daniel Vaz who was awarded the prestigious 2023 PQI Graduate Fellowship! Daniel will be exploring exotic exitons in 2D heterostructures as part of his fellowship research activities. Read more about the award and research here Congrats, Daniel!
Tags: quantum 2D materials PQI

Funding Sources:

Our lab acknowledges generous funding support provided by: