Volker J. Sorger

Headshot of Volker Sorger
Title:
Professor
Office:
SEH 6590 | Office hours: R: 9:00 – 10:00 am
Phone:
202-994-7186
Email:
[email protected]
Website:
sorger.seas.gwu.edu

 

Volker J. Sorger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the director of the Devices & Intelligent Systems Laboratory at The George Washington University. His research areas include devices & optoelectronics, AI/ML accelerators, mixed-signal ASICs, quantum matter & quantum processors, and cryptography. For his work, Dr. Sorger has received multiple awards,including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research's Young Investigator Research Program Award, the Emil Wolf Prize, and the National Academy of Sciences Best Annual Paper Award. Dr. Sorger is an associate editor for the journal OPTICA and the former editor-in-chief of the journal Nanophotonics. He was named a 2022 Optica Fellow (formerly The Optical Society) and a 2022 SPIE Fellow, as well as he's a Fellow of the German National Academic Foundation and a Senior Member of IEEE. In 2020, Dr. Sorger co-founded the deep-tech venture company, Optelligence.

 

  • Ph.D., The University of California - Berkeley, 2011
  • Management of Technology, Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, 2011
  • M.A., The University of Texas, 2005

Honors (selected)

2021  Fellow, OSA (Optica) 

2021  Highly Cited Researcher recognition

2020  Community Campion, SPIE 

2019  PECASE - Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists & Engineers

2016  Hegarty Innovations Prize

2016  Dean’s Outstanding Research Award, GWU

2014  Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award, AFOSR

2011  Gold Award, Material Research Society

2010  Best Paper Award, National Academy of Sciences (NAS)

2009  Emil Wolf Prize, OSA

2009  Finalist, European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Selection (top 0.2%)

2006  Research Award, Intel Corporation CTG 

2005  Fellow, Hölderlin Program

2002  Fellow, The German National Academic Foundation (by German President)

Distinctions

Editorships: Editor-in-Chief of NANOPHOTONICS (IF=7.5), Guest Editor Optics Materials Express

Leadership: Division Chair ‘Optoelectronics and Photonics’ (OSA); Technical Group Development Chair (OSA); Technical Group Chair (OSA); Symposia and Scholarship Committee (SPIE); National Photonics Initiative Task Force

Conference Chair: CLEO 2020 Neural Networks, Advanced Photonics Congress, Photonics West (3x times), Optics & Photonics (2x times), MRS Spring & Fall, OSA Incubators, SPIE PW & O&P (multiple).

Journal Reviewer: NPG, Science, ASC, IEEE, OSA, API

Honors: Senior Member Status (OSA, SPIE, IEEE). Fellow of German National Academic Foundation

  1. Plasmon Lasers at Deep Sub-Wavelength Scale Application (US Patent No. 8,509,276) - Licensed for $2,000,000 to a South Korean major electronics manufacturer.
  2. Silicon-based, Broadband, Waveguide-Integrated Electro-Optical Switch (US Patent No. 9,529,158).
  3. Hybrid Photonic Plasmonic Interconnects with Intrinsic and Extrinsic Modulation Option (US Patent No. 10,256,600).
  4. The Reconfigurable Optical Co-Processor (US Patent No. 10,318,680).
  5. All Optical Fast Fourier Transform on Chip with Heating Tunability Design, Simulation, Fabrication, and Performance Analysis. (US Patent No. 10,481,463).
  6. Plasmonic mode III-V laser as on-chip light source (US Patent No. 10,374,389) (filed jointly with IBM)
  7. Hybrid Photonic Plasmonic Non-blocking Wide Spectrum WDM On-chip Router (US Patent No. 10,564,512).
  8. Graphene –Based Plasmonic Slot Electro-Optical Modulator (US Patent No. 10,663,766).
  9. Two-Dimensional Material Printer and Transfer System and Method for Atomically Layered Materials (US Patent Appl. No. 16/121.156).
  10. Residue Arithmetic Nanophotonic System (US Patent Appl. No. 16/284.762).
  11. Image Symmetry Detection via leaky-firing Spiking Neuromorphic Networks (US Patent Appl. No. 16/266.765).
  12. Optical Convolutional Neural Network Accelerator (US Patent Appl. No. 16/507,854).
  13. Optical Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC) (US Patent Appl. No. 16/439,268).
  14. Transparent Conductive Oxide-Based Mach-Zehnder Integrated Modulator in Silicon Photonics. (US Patent Appl. No. 16/545.733).
  15. Photonic Tensor Core Processor (PCT International Appl. No. PCT/US2020/028516 – not yet published).
  16. CMOS Compatible Light Emitting Tunnel Junction (LETJ) (PCT International Appl. No. PCT/US2020/032347 – not yet published).
  17. Low loss multistate Photonic Nonvolatile Memories (Provisional Appl. No. 63/026.451 - not yet published).
  18. Dual Functional Broadband On-Chip Optical Modulator Detector (Provisional Appl. No. 62/633.382 - not yet published).
  19. Strain-Engineered Integrated MoTe2 Photodetectors for High Responsivity (Provisional Appl. No. 62/938,116 - not yet published).
  20. 2D material-based Spiral Solar Cell (Provisional Appl. No. 62/146.590 - not yet published).