Shui-Qinq (Fisher) Yu, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, was elected to chair the IEEE Photonics Society Summer Conference series for the third consecutive year for the topic of Integrated Photonics for the Mid-Infrared. This year's conference was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico and addressed the topic of Integrated Photonics.

Over the past three years, Yu has volunteered his time and effort into organizing the summer conference series, which serve as a hub for exciting and upcoming research topics in the area of photonic science, technology, and application.

Topics covered this year included:

• Integrated Photonics for the Ultraviolet and Visible Spectral Range (IPUV)
• Integrated Photonics for the Mid-Infrared (IPMI)
• Low Energy Integrated Nanophotonics (LEIN)
• Optical Switching Technologies for Datacom and Computercom Applications (OSDC)
• Photonics Research for 5G and beyond (PR5G)
• Quantum Networks (QNW)

"The topic was selected from a group of competitive proposals of emerging areas in photonics", stated Yu. "I am glad that IEEE could recognize the importance of this field. We would like to use this meeting as a platform to bring key researchers together on an annual basis to exchange information and promote the growth of the area.  We have been very successful in the last three years".

Yu's primary research interests include the development of novel semiconductor optoelectronics devices such as lasers, photo detectors, and terahertz (THz) devices. His achievements in these areas include the development of 1310nm GaAsSb/GaAs lasers with world record performance, LEDs with extreme energy conversion efficiencies for space applications, and multi-junction solar cells with potential conversion efficiencies exceeding 50 percent. Yu has also been developing renewable energy devices covering visible to far-infrared wavelength ranges using novel Bismide compounds and SiGeSn alloys through advanced nanofabrication techniques.