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Yating Wan

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering Division

yating.wan@kaust.edu.sa
Integrated Photonics Lab (IPL)


Affiliations

Education Profile

  • Postdoc fellow, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2017-2022
  • Ph.D. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2017
  • B.S. Zhejiang University, 2012

Research Interests

Dr. Yating Wan is an Assistant Professor at KAUST, specializing in Silicon Photonics with a focus on integrating on-chip light sources that can be applied to data communication, optical computing, OPA based lidar, and quantum information processing. She earned her Ph.D. in 2017 from HKUST (supervised by Prof. Kei May Lau). From 2016 to 2022, she worked at UCSB (supervised by Prof. John Bowers), where she led Intel’s project on heterogeneously integrated quantum dot lasers, making significant contributions to Si CMOS-compatible light sources.

Dr. Wan has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including 29 first-author journal papers (10 as covers), 7 corresponding-author journal papers, and >20 invited talks in international conferences. With over 3,600 citations and an h-index of 32, her research has received prestigious awards, including 2016-17 HKUST PhD Research Excellence Award (2 awardees per year), 2018 PIERS Young Scientist Award, 2021 CLEO Tingye Li Innovation Prize (1 awardee per year), 2022 Rising Stars of Light by Light: Science & Applications (3 awardees per year), 2023 “35 Innovators Under 35 for China” by MIT Technology Review, 2024 Optica Ambassador), 2025 IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award(1 awardee per year), and 2025 Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature (3 awardees per year, $250,000 prize) among others.


Outside of her immediate research spectrum, Dr. Wan has been a proactive contributor to the broader academic community. She is the Manager & Column Editor for Light: Science & Applications in Thuwal, Associate editor in Applied Optics, IEEE JQE, guest associate editor in IEEE JSTQE, TPC of IPC and CLEO, and Committee Member of the IEEE Photonics Society (IPS) Conference Council and­ SPIE Publication. She has also been a referee for a myriad of prestigious journals, spanning IEEE, OSA, and the Nature Publishing Group for more than 100 times.

Selected Publications

  • B. Dong, Y. Wan*, W. W. Chow, C. Shang, A. Prokoshin, R. Koscica. H, Wang, J. E. Bowers, “Turnkey locking of quantum-dot lasers directly grown on Si”, Nature Photonics, 1-8, 2024 (*corresponding author, Impact: 32.3)

  • Z. Zhou, X. Ou, Y. Fang, E. Alkhazraji, R. Xu, Y. Wan*, J. E. Bowers, “Prospects and applications of on-chip lasers”, Elight 3 (1), 1-25, 2023. (Featured by Light: Science & Applications, *corresponding author, Impact: 27.2).

  • A. Prokoshin, M. Gehl, S. E. Madaras, W. W. Chow, Y. Wan*, “Ultra-narrow-linewidth hybrid-integrated self-injection locked laser at 780 nm”, Optica, 11(7), 1024-1029, 2024. (*corresponding author, Impact: 8.4).

  • E. Alkhazraji, W. W. Chow, F. Grillot, J. E. Bowers, Y. Wan* “Linewidth narrowing in self-injection-locked on-chip lasers”, Light: Science & Applications. 12(1), 162, 2023. (*corresponding author, Impact: 20.26).

  • A. Prokoshin, W. W. Chow, B. Dong, F. Grillot, J. E. Bowers, Y. Wan*, “Linewidth narrowing in self-injection locked lasers: effects of quantum confinement”, APL Photonics, 9(8), 2024.