Nasser Peyghambarian grew up in Iran where his interest in optics and lasers was ignited by experiments on holography working with American teachers as a member of the Iran-American Society. He moved to the U.S. to earn his PhD at Indiana University studying the Bose-Einstein condensation of biexcitons in semiconductors.
Nasser then joined the University of Arizona in 1982 as a post-doc working with Professor Hyatt Gibbs, and soon became a professor of Optical Sciences and Materials Science and Engineering. As the Photonics and Lasers Chair for Wyant College of Optical Sciences, Nasser also served as Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN).
He has successfully advised 61 PhD students and 56 MS students and supervised 85 postdoctoral researchers and research scientists for his highly successful multidisciplinary, multi-university research programs. Outside university collaborators that included Columbia, Cornell, UCSD, Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Caltech, MIT, Stanford, Norfolk State University, and Tuskegee University, many national laboratory, defense, and corporate collaborators also joined as partners in these research programs.
Nasser’s research has generated innovations in the areas of 3-D display, vision optics, Augmented Reality glasses, laser technology, nanoscale materials and devices, solar energy, optical communications, and the internet. He authored more than 600 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, authored or co-authored 28 books and book chapters, and holds 40 patents. The high impact and citations of his work holds an h-index of 74 on the Web of Science.
As an entrepreneur, Nasser founded NP Photonics Inc., TIPD LLC, and iCrx, Inc. - developing products resulting from his research in the areas of lasers, optical fiber devices, optoelectronic devices, devices for ophthalmology applications, subsystems, and systems for government and industry. He also co-founded EARDG Photonics, Inc., introducing a new type of holographic display technology that can be incorporated into eyeglasses for augmented reality.
Nasser is a Fellow of SPIE, OSA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society. In 2016, he was elected as a Fellow for the National Academy of Inventors. He established this endowed chair to support extraordinarily talented faculty on the cutting-edge of research.