His primary appointment is with the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering with courtesy appointments in the Mortenson Center for Engineering in Developing Communities and the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program (ITP). Alan’s primary research focus is optical nanotechnology, most recently silicon photonics for computer interconnections. He has also been involved in communication and solar energy for developing communities in recent years in the last decade. Alan received his PhD from California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA, was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Byurakan, Soviet Armenia and spent four years at the Norwegian Institute of Technology as a Postdoctoral Fellow and staff member of the Elektronikklaboratoriet.