Prof. Schmidt is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Narinder Singh Kapany Chair of Optoelectronics in the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. He directs the W.M. Keck Center for Nanoscale Optofluidics and its nanofabrication and characterization facilities and has served as the Associate Dean for Research from 2016 to 2021. He has authored or coauthored over 400 publications and several book chapters in various field of optics. He is co-editor of the CRC Press' Handbook of Optofluidics. He is a principal investigator for the Center of Live Cell Genomics, an NIH Center of Excellence in Genomic Science. He is a faculty member of the California Institiute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3), the UCSC Genomics Institute (GI), and the Storage Systems Research Center (SSRC). He was elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 2014, Fellow of the IEEE in 2017, and Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2019. He received the Engineering Achievement Award from the IEEE Photonics Society for development of optofluidic waveguide technology in 2019 and the UCSC Innovator of the Year Award in 2024.

See a summary of Prof. Schmidt's publications on Google Scholar.

Research interests:
- Single particle optics
- Integrated optofluidics
- Integrated optics for biomedical applications
- Nano-magneto-optics, nano-magnetism
- Time-resolved spectroscopy of molecules, semiconductors and nanostructures
- Quantum interference, electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)
- Nonlinear optics
- Quantum optics
- All-optical semiconductor devices


Employment:

Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UC Santa Cruz
07/22 - present

Narinder Singh Kapany Endowed Chair of Optoelectronics, UC Santa Cruz
07/13 - present

Associate Dean for Research, UC Santa Cruz
10/16 - 09/21

Professor of Electrical Engineering, UC Santa Cruz
07/09 - 07/22

Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, UC Santa Cruz
07/05 - 06/09

Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, UC Santa Cruz
07/01 - 06/05

Postdoctoral Fellow, Semiconductor Laser Group, Research Lab of Electronics, MIT
08/99 - 06/01

Postdoctoral Associate, Semiconductor Quantum Optics Group, UC Santa Barbara
04/99 - 07/99

Research Assistant, Semiconductor Quantum Optics Group, UC Santa Barbara
09/94 - 03/99

Postgraduate Researcher, Microstructure Laboratory, University of Stuttgart, Germany
04/94 - 07/94


Education:

Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of California, Santa Barbara, March 1999
Advisor: A. Imamoglu
Thesis: Quantum interference in linear and nonlinear optics

M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of California, Santa Barbara, December 1995

Diploma in Physics
University of Stuttgart, Germany, April 1994
Advisor: M. Pilkuhn
Thesis: Dynamics of low-dimensional, optically pumped semiconductor lasers


Honors and Awards:

UC Santa Cruz Innovator of the Year, 2024

UC Distinguished Professor, 2022

Fellow, National Academy of Inventors, 2019

Engineering Achievement Award, IEEE Photonics Society, 2019

Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017

Fellow, Optical Society of America, 2014

Narinder Singh Kapany Endowed Chair or Optoelectronics, UC Santa Cruz
07/13 - present

Keck Futures Nanotechnology Award, 2005

NSF CAREER Award, 2002

NEC Fellowship, 1999

QUEST Vice Chancellor's Fellowship for Advanced Research in Quantum Structures, 1998

Postgraduate Fellowship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), 1994