Affiliations

• Electrical and Computer Engineering

Education Profile

• Postdoc fellow, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2017-2022
• Ph.D. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2017
• B.S. Zhejiang University, 2012

Research Interests

Dr. Yating Wan is an Assistant Professor at KAUST, specializing in Silicon Photonics with a focus on integrating on-chip light sources. She earned her Ph.D. in 2017 from HKUST (supervised by Prof. Kei May Lau). From 2016 to 2022, she worked at UCSB (supervised by Prof. John Bowers), where she led Intel’s project on heterogeneously integrated quantum dot lasers, making significant contributions to Si CMOS-compatible light sources. Dr. Wan has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including 29 first-author journal papers (10 as covers), 7 corresponding-author journal papers, and >20 invited talks in international conferences. With over 3,500 citations and an h-index of 33, her research has received prestigious awards, including HKUST PhD Research Excellence Award (2017), PIERS Young Scientist Award (2018), CLEO Tingye Li Innovation Prize (2021), Rising Stars of Light by Light: Science & Applications (2022), MIT Technology Review's "35 Innovators Under 35 for China" (2023), Optica Ambassador (2024), and Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature (2025). She is the Associate editor in Applied Optics, IEEE JQE, guest associate editor in IEEE JSTQE, TPC of IPC and CLEO, and Committee Member of the IEEE Photonics Society (IPS) Conference Council.

Selected Publications

• Y. Wan, C. Xiang, J. Guo, R. Koscica, MJ Kennedy, J. Selvidge, Z. Zhang, L. Chang, W. Xie, D.Huang, A. C. Gossard, and J. E. Bowers*, “High speed evanescent quantum-dot lasers on Si”, Laser & Photonics Reviews 2100057, 2021. (Impact: 13.14, Front cover)
• Y. Wan, J. Norman, Q. Li, MJ. Kennedy, D. Liang, C. Zhang, D. Huang, Z. Zhang, A. Y. Liu, A. Torres, D. Jung, A. C. Gossard, E. L. Hu, K. M. Lau, and J. E. Bowers*, “1.3 µm submilliamp threshold quantum dot micro-lasers on Si”, Optica, 4(8), 940-944 (2017). (Impact: 10.4, Front cover)
• B. Dong, Y. Wan*, W. W. Chow, C. Shang, A. Prokoshin, R. Koscica. H, Wang, J. E. Bowers, “Turnkey locking of quantum-dot lasers directly grown on Si”, Nature Photonics. 1-8, 2024. (*Equally contributing authors and corresponding author) (Impact: 34.9).
• Z. Zhou, X. Ou, Y. Fang, E. Alkhazraji, R. Xu, Y. Wan*, J. E. Bowers, “Prospects and applications of on-chip lasers”, Elight 3 (1), 1-25, 2023. (Featured by Light: Science & Applications volume as a Spotlight, *corresponding author). (Impact: 27.2).
• E. Alkhazraji, W. W. Chow, F. Grillot, J. E. Bowers, Y. Wan* “Linewidth narrowing in self-injection-locked on-chip lasers”, Light: Science & Applications. 12(1), 162, 2023. (*corresponding author) (Impact: 20.26).