Yoshitomo Okawachi received his B.S. degree in Engineering Physics in 2002 and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics in 2008, both from Cornell University. He is currently a Research Scientist in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University. His research areas include optical frequency comb generation in silicon-based waveguides and microresonators, coherent computing based on degenerate optical parametric oscillators, slow light, and all-optical signal processing using space-time duality techniques.

Dr. Okawachi is the recipient of the 2017 Tingye Li Innovation Prize. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal papers and is a co-inventor on 3 patents. He has served on the CLEO, FiO, LAASP, and ACP subcommittees and is a referee for 26 peer-reviewed journals. He is currently an associate editor for Optics Letters, Vice Chair of the Ultrafast Optical Phenomena Technical Group, and the Chair-Elect of the OSA Integrated Photonics Technical Group. He is an OSA fellow and served as the 2017 OSA Ambassador.