Nicholas G. Usechak

Nicholas G. Usechak (M’07–SM’12) was born in Long Branch, NJ, USA, in 1976. He received the B.S. degrees with high honors in electrical engineering and engineering physics from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA, in 2000, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in optical engineering from the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester NY, USA, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on experiments, simulations, and the theory of FM mode-locked fiber lasers. He worked with Trumpf Photonics, Cranbury, NJ, USA, as a Senior Engineer for a year following graduation characterizing high-power semiconductor laser arrays, automating experiments, and modeling the thermal effects of solder interfaces using transient temperature-extraction experiments to ground those models. After Trumpf, he joined the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright–Patterson Air Force Base, OH, USA, where he is currently employed as a Senior Electronics Engineer. In addition to his research activities at AFRL, he also serves as the Government's Chief Technology Officer for AIM Photonics and supports DARPA on a number of programs. At Lehigh, he was a presidential scholar during the academic year 1999–2000. At the University of Rochester, he conducted his experimental work in the Laboratory for Laser Energetics where he was a Frank J. Horton Fellow. His research interests include integrated photonics, integrated photonic circuits, nonlinear optics, fiber lasers, ultrafast optics, high-speed test and measurement, mode-locked lasers, parametric processes, optical clock generation, novel gain media, diverse waveform generation, partial differential equations, delay differential equations, and numerical modeling. Dr. Usechak is a member of the OSA, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi.