Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast

This episode features Dan Cherowbrier, CTO of Formula E, the U.K.-based all-electric car racing series. Host Justine Murphy talked with him during the COMSOL Conference 2026 Boston about the growing role of optics in auto racing, and about Formula E's multiphysics partnership with industry giant COMSOL.

In this second installment of our Expert Insights series, Dr. Yuping Huang, CEO and chairman of Quantum Computing Incorporated, discusses the growing alliance between quantum computing and classical photonics.
 

From Nobel Prize winners to Innovators Awards to PhotonicsNXT, this episode features a roundup of some of the amazing things happening in photonics!

This episode features Eric Diebold, vice president and general manager for Instrumentation, Software, and Informatics at Waters Biosciences. He was also founder and CEO of Omega Biosystems, a startup based on his postdoctoral research on high-speed imaging flow cytometry.
He talked recently with Host Justine Murphy about Waters Biosciences and his role there, the innovations he and his team have led, and what the future holds for the bio realm.

Here’s the second of a two-part series featuring Host Justine Murphy's chat with Dr. Garrett Cole, an associate professor and the Nelson E. Claytor Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona’s Wyant College of Optical Sciences.
In this episode, he talks about his numerous accomplishments and accolades, he reflects on his career and lessons learned along the way, and he offers some advice and insight for the next generation researchers and entrepreneurs.

Space coatings don't get a second chance. There's no sending a satellite back to Earth to fix an underperforming mirror or filter, so every coating has to be built, documented, and qualified to hold its optical and mechanical performance for the entire mission—in vacuum, through thermal cycling, through atomic oxygen exposure in low Earth orbit.
That means the coating stack changes with the job: dielectric-enhanced aluminum or silver for UV and visible mirrors, protected gold or silver for near-IR, and gold for long-wave IR thermal imaging. Filters and AR coatings get the same rigor, tested in sequence against ASTM, ISO, and MIL specs before anything is cleared for flight.
With satellites now losing orbital lifespan faster than expected due to an intense solar cycle, lighter, more durable coatings matter more than ever.
Host Justine Murphy talked all about it recently with Matthew Balkonis, senior account manager at precision optical components specialist Omega Optical, and Joe Howe, Omega's Industrial/Semiconductor/MilAero sales director—both experts in this sector who qualify coatings for full-mission performance.

This first of a two-part episode features Dr. Garrett Cole, an associate professor and the Nelson E. Claytor Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona’s Wyant College of Optical Sciences.
He has numerous accolades under this belt, experience as an entrepreneur in startups and major corporations, and has spent years as a researcher and applied scientist, including at Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
In this fun, interesting, and rather enlightening talk with Host Justine Murphy, he discusses his current role in academia, his several decades in the industry, and the unconventional path that led him here.

Photonics is undergoing the same transformation the semiconductor industry experienced decades ago; evolving from specialized, low-volume manufacturing into standardized, highly automated, high-volume production.
In this episode, PI Physik's Nikta Jalayer explores how precision motion, intelligent alignment, and automation technologies are enabling that transition by transforming photonics manufacturing from a serial, labor-intensive process into a highly automated, high-throughput production environment, making large-scale deployment of optical interconnects both practical and economically viable.

This episode features Jennifer Kehlet Barton, a professor and Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona. There, her research focuses on the development of optical techniques for understanding disease processes.
In this really interesting chat she had recently with Host Justine Murphy, Jennifer talked about the diverse path that led her to where she is now, her research and technology developments, and what inspires her. 

This episode features Shankaran Janardhanan, senior vice president and GM of the Photonics and RF division at GlobalFoundries.
He talked recently with Host Justine Murphy about the company and the role of optical data centers and photonics components in the world’s ever-advancing technology landscape.