We asked our graduates to write about their time in our group. Here are their stories.

2024
  • Xiaotong He PhD
  • Ruichen Yang M.S.
2023
  • Juniyali Nauriyal PhD
  • Nicholas Achuthan B.S.
  • Evelyn Ferwalt B.S.
  • Yi Zhang PhD
2022
  • Meiting Song PhD
  • Marissa Granados Báez PhD

Meiting Song PhD

November 2, 2022

My name is Meiting Song. I am from Hebei, China and I got my Bachelor’s degree in Optoelectronics at Tianjin University in 2016. Then I came to the University of Rochester to continue my graduate studies at the Institute of Optics as part of the Cardenas Lab group. I graduated from the PhD program in August 2022 and continued in the Cardenas Lab as a postdoc. MORE

Marissa Granados Báez PhD

12/07/2022

My name is Marissa Granados Baez. I was born in Cordoba and grew up in Orizaba, both in the state of Veracruz in Mexico. I recently graduated from the Ph.D. Optics program at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. The focus of my Ph.D. was on integrated photonics. My main project focused on building an on-chip laser based on 2D materials. MORE

Juniyali Nauriyal PhD

2017-2023

I am Juniyali Nauriyal from India, I’m finished a PhD in Electrical Engineering with a focus on integrated photonics and how to connect optical fibers to photonic chips in 2023. I completed my Bachelors in Engineering from Mumbai University in 2016 and then come to the United States to further do a masters. I completed my Masters in Optics from the University of Rochester in 2018 and continued my journey of graduate school as a PhD student. MORE

Nicholas Achuthan B.S.

Joining Cardenas lab as an undergraduate was one of my most impactful college experiences. I came to the group in the first semester of my sophomore year, with only a small handful of optics classes under my belt. I barely knew what integrated photonics was, but Professor Cardenas saw enough promise in me to bring me onto the team. MORE

Evelyn Ferwalt B.S.

Three years into my Electrical & Computer Engineering bachelor’s, I knew I needed to start specializing. I didn’t have much of a direction, but an ECE background meant I had countless directions to pursue. I was always curious about UR’s optics program, and even though I didn’t think research was for me, I started getting excited about the field of electro-optics, and started looking for opportunities. MORE

Yi Zhang PhD

August 24, 2023

It is time to say goodbye to Rochester. Though it has been almost a month since my defense passed, and my friends and I have partied, hugged, and said best wishes to our futures, a feeling of incredibility still ripples through my mind when I start typing down these words. I have stayed in this little city (compared to my hometown) for six years, have met, worked with, and hung around with many amazing people, have earned a degree, and now I am about to shift to the next stage in my life. Time flies, but when I look back into it, the clips of moments in the past two thousand days and nights just emerge and become explicit, reminding me of this memorable period of time in my life. MORE

Xiaotong He PhD

April 2024

My name is Xiaotong He. I’m from Liaoning province in China. I received my bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), in 2018. I did my graduate studies at the Institute of Optics of the University of Rochester where my doctoral research focus was on novel integrated photonics devices with ring resonators. I defended my PhD thesis in April 2024. MORE

Ruichen Yang M.S.

April 2024

My name is Ruichen, and I earned both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in optical engineering from the University of Rochester. During my sophomore year, I took a writing class focused on crafting resumes and cover letters. One of the assignments required us to research various research groups and write a cover letter for one. This was when I first discovered the Cardenas Lab. On their website’s front page, I saw images of microchips and a hand holding the tip of a fiber. Instantly intrigued, I decided to write a cover letter for this research group. MORE