Department of Electro-Optics and Photonics
Photonics All Around Us!
- Display technology: all modern computers, TV's and cell phones
- Lidar: drones for aerial mapping and by self-driving cars
- Optical spectroscopy: detection of hazardous chemicals and pathogens
- Optical lithography: critical step in semiconductor chips manufacture
- 3D imaging and holograms: technologies, such as Hololens and forensic sciences
- Optical data storage: DVDs, Bluray, etc.
- Optical coatings: mirrors, displays and even your cell phone screens
- Photodetectors and imaging: nearly every camera and cell phones
- Night vision cameras: surveillance, military and energy industries
- Fiber optics: backbone of our broadband communication network
- Laser machining: emerging technology quickly replacing traditional machining
- Lasers: many areas from medical surgery and telecommunications to even spacecraft propulsion
- Plus many more . . .
Most modern technologies involve photonics. At the University of Dayton, we offer M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in this exciting field. We are proud to be one of a handful of academic programs in the world — a true interdisciplinary department — engineering and physics.
Our world-class photonics laboratories are uniquely designed to provide hands-on learning. Our focus research directly aligns with those of government labs and commercial industries, which allows you to obtain real-world and highly marketable research experiences. With our partner industries, we have numerous internships, and you have opportunities to network and travel to exciting technical conferences.
At UD, we take your professional and personal growth seriously. As part of a Catholic Marianist university, we educate the whole person. Professors who care about you and who are leaders in the field are your mentors and work side-by-side with you in the lab and in the classroom as you make friends and memories that last a lifetime.
You'll be able to secure high-tech industry, defense lab or academia employment prior to graduation because of our challenging curriculum, supportive faculty and staff, real-world experiences, and networking opportunities. Over $100K per year are typical starting salaries. In photonics, you will be a professional in a high-demand field and always find a job.
Join our department and soar to great heights as a UD Flyer, and in the Department of Electro-Optics and Photonics, and your future will shine brighter.
Congratulations to Dr. Paul McManamon recipient of the 2022 Goodman Book Award, which is given once every two years, is for prominent book authorship in photonics. McManamon's 2019 book on Lidar technology was based on many decades of his sustained contributions. At the University of Dayton in 2015, he wrote a Field Guide, followed in 2019 by Lidar. His short course taught each summer with Dr. Ed Watson draws attendees from around the globe.
University of Dayton Department of Electro-Optics and Photonics Professor Partha Banerjee served as lead editor of a recent joint feature issue on Digital Holography and 3D Imaging, published in Optica’s Applied Optics and the Journal of the Optical Society of America A.
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Cell phones, cars and many other devices have separate cameras and sensors for day and night vision, but that need could go away thanks to University of Dayton researchers who developed a single device that can switch between day and night vision applications.
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The National Institutes of Health awarded University of Dayton physics researcher Chenglong Zhao a four-year, $1.5 million grant to develop a new super-resolution imaging system that can provide high-quality images of biological structures 10,000 times smaller than a human hair.
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The department has research and teaching assistantship positions. The teaching assistantships usually are done in collaboration with the Physics Department. Each assistantship may include a stipend and tuition remission. Assistantship contract durations and funding vary and reflect one school year at a time. For consideration for an assistantship, applicants should indicate their interest when completing the online application. For more details, please contact the Department of Electro-Optics and Photonics, 937-229-2797.
Annual, renewable assistantships with tuition and a monthly stipend are available in all engineering departments. Master’s and doctoral students may apply, but current University of Dayton undergraduate and graduate students are not eligible.