Hi reddit!
I am Lan Yang, an electrical engineering professor at Washington University in St. Louis. My interests are in transforming the research discoveries in fundamental science to technologies that could benefit the society and improve the quality of life.
My research has centered around high-quality optical microresonators, which could significantly enhance light-matter interactions and therefore triggers many interesting physics. The research in my group falls in two categories: one is about fundamental understanding of interesting physics in high-quality optical resonators, and the other is to seek applications enabled by such a structure, such as sensing — particularly, nanoscale sensing — which have a direct impact on broad applications from environmental monitoring to early disease diagnosis and health care.
A few years ago, we developed an on-chip sensor that could detect and measure the size of individual nanoparticles. Recently, my group has made some progress in unconventional control of light flow in optical structures by exploiting special features associated with parity-time-symmetry and exceptional points. It’s not surprising that fundamental science doesn't show a direct connection to applications. But when opportunities come, it’s natural for us to combine these two directions. This time, we are developing a new sensing technology by using a special feature associated with a resonator when it’s operated around exceptional points.
I'll be back at 1 pm ET to answer your questions, AMA!
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