Dirk Robert Englund is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on quantum photonics and optical computing.

Biography and education

Dirk Robert Englund was born and raised in Germany and California. He studied physics at the California Institute of Technology and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 2002. After spending one year at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands through a Fulbright scholarship, he returned to the United States. There, he completed his Master of Science in electrical engineering and his Doctor of Philosophy in applied physics at Stanford University in 2008. His doctoral work was guided by Professor Jelena Vuckovic. Following his doctorate, he conducted postdoctoral research with Professor Mikhail Lukin at Harvard University. Dirk Englund is the son of Robert Keith Englund, an American Assyriologist.

Career and research

From 2010 to 2013, Englund worked as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Columbia University. In 2013, he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is now an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Englund’s research involves creating tools that use light for quantum information technologies and speeding up machine learning. He has worked on many topics in photonics, including how tiny light sources function in special crystal structures, storing quantum information in diamond defects, combining graphene with light sensors, improving machine learning with optical systems, and designing light-based circuits that work in extremely cold environments. In 2022, he and his team showed how to efficiently run neural networks on edge devices using fiber optics and parts from telecommunications.

His work has helped create several companies: DUST Identity is developing diamond features for security verification; Lightmatter is creating systems for light-based computing; QuEra Computing is building quantum computers using neutral atoms; and Quantum Network Technologies is designing tools to improve quantum communication networks.

Awards

Englund has been honored with many awards for his work in research, such as a Humboldt Professorship, the Optica Adolph Lomb Medal, and an IBM Faculty Award. He is an Optica Fellow.