Daniel Blumenthal

Daniel J. Blumenthal is an electrical engineer, academic, and author. He is a distinguished professor at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Blumenthal's research has focused on photonic integration for neutral atoms and trapped ion quantum sensing and computing, integration for optical communications, ultra-low loss silicon nitride waveguides, ultra-low linewidth integrated lasers, and photonic integrated circuits. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Optica Society, and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Education Blumenthal earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester in 1981. He received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in 1988 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1993.

Career Blumenthal began his professional career as an engineer at StorageTek from 1981 to 1984, followed by a role as a senior engineer at Sievers Research from 1984 to 1985. Later, he began working as a research engineer at Columbia University, where he remained until 1988, and subsequently at the University of Pennsylvania until 1990. He is also the head of the Optical Communications and Atomic Quantum Photonic Integration Group (OCAQpi).

Blumenthal held the appointment of chief technology officer (CTO) at Packet Photonics He has been a guest editor of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics and the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. Some of his research examined silicon nitride (SiN) photonics, demonstrating ultralow propagation losses in silicon nitride waveguides. Other research topics have included optical communications and high-speed networking, photonic switching systems with optical amplification, optical-label switching, and wavelength conversion. He has also worked on integrated photonic platforms, including ultra-low-loss waveguides, and explored silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for applications including communications, beam steering, signal processing, sensing, as well as optical gyroscopes. and optical-label switching for routing IP traffic without payload detection.

Awards and honors 1999 – Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), White House / United States Department of Defense 2003 – Fellow, IEEE 2006 – Fellow, Optical Society 2017 – Fellow, National Academy of Inventors 2020 – C. E. K. Mees Medal, Optical Society NSF Young Investigator Award – U.S. National Science Foundation