DR. AFTAB AHMED

Dr. Aftab Ahmed joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at California State University, Long Beach as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2016. Dr. Ahmed held the position of postdoctoral researcher at Argonne National Laboratory from 2013-16 after obtaining his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from University of Victoria in Canada in 2012. He also has over four years of industry work experience as an electric circuit design engineer.

A theme of Dr. Ahmed’s research centers around the design and development of new devices and methods based on light-matter interactions at small length (nano-, meso-, micro-) scales. His motivation is to advance physics and engineering of optoelectronic devices, and to utilize this knowledge to tackle real-world problems in medical diagnostics, photonics, sustainable energy, and optical/microwave communications. His research goals include integration of unique capabilities of hybrid plasmonic nanostructures and the wealth of design guidelines and techniques in the microwave regime leading to next generation optoelectronic and all-optical devices. Such devices will not only lead to new paradigms but will also overcome existing inefficiencies in cost, speed and size.

Dr. Ahmed’s latest patent, which has become a core technology for an industry partner, exploits intense electromagnetic fields confined to sub-wavelength dimensions for increased sensitivity. This marks a significant improvement in the clinical ability to diagnose cancer at earlier stages. Dr. Ahmed has been serving as a reviewer for various journals (including Optical Society of America, Journal of Applied Physics, Optics Express, IEEE Photonics, and Scientific Reports) and he is actively collaborating with Argonne National Research Laboratory, universities, and industry partners.