Feng Pan

Biography

Although Feng knew little about photonics before graduate school, he was drawn to optics, lasers, and spectroscopy from the very beginning. He first glimpsed what photonics could enable in Prof. Randall Goldsmith’s lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he became captivated by the idea that light can be guided, confined, and manipulated in unexpected ways. He then ventured deeper into the nanoscale world as a postdoctoral scholar in Prof. Jennifer Dionne’s lab at Stanford University, where he was fascinated by how carefully designed nanostructures can “trick” light and shape light–matter interactions in powerful ways. Outside the lab, Feng enjoys hiking, running, century-mile cycling, and doing fun chemistry experiments at home with his two boys.