Yanne Chembo

Chembo was born in Cameroon. He attended the University of Yaoundé I where he earned two bachelor's degrees, one in physics and one in telecommunications engineering. Chembo completed two simultaneous doctoral degrees, one at the University of Yaoundé I and one at the University of the Balearic Islands. After earning his doctoral degree, Chembo moved to the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) FEMTO-ST Institute as a postdoctoral researcher. He joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2009.

Chembo returned to the FEMTO-ST Institute in 2010, where he led a group working on microwave photonics.[1][2] Here Chembo looked to develop ultra-pure microwaves using optical resonators.[1] He was supported by the European Research Council.[1] He created a photonic module that was capable of generating high-purity microwave signals for aerospace and optical communications.[1] To allow for coherent optical fibre telecommunications, Chembo made use of Kerr frequency combs.[3]

In 2014 Chembo was appointed to the International Commission for Optics committee on regional development.[4]

He stayed in France until 2016, when he moved to the joint Georgia Tech – CNRS Joint International Laboratory.[5][6] He moved to the University of Maryland, College Park in 2019, where he was made associate professor of Electrical Engineering.[7] He holds a joint position at the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP).[8]

He is an Associate Editor for Optics Express and has helped with the organisation of the International Year of Light.[5][9]

• 2019 Fellow of SPIE "for his achievements in ultra-stable microwave photonics oscillators."[4]
• 2020 Fellow of The Optical Society "For pioneering contributions to the development of microwave photonic systems for aerospace and communication engineering, including monolithic optical frequency comb generators and optoelectronic oscillators."[10][11]
• 2023 Fellow of the American Physical Society "for pioneering contributions to the understanding and application of complexity in time-delayed and spatially extended systems, encompassing experiments and models in both quantum and classical photonic domains"[12]

• Chembo, Yanne K.; Menyuk, Curtis R. (2013-05-31). "Spatiotemporal Lugiato-Lefever formalism for Kerr-comb generation in whispering-gallery-mode resonators". Physical Review A. 87 (5): 053852. arXiv:1210.8210. Bibcode:2013PhRvA..87e3852C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.87.053852. S2CID 16050188.
• Chembo, Yanne K.; Yu, Nan (2010-09-07). "Modal expansion approach to optical-frequency-comb generation with monolithic whispering-gallery-mode resonators". Physical Review A. 82 (3): 033801. Bibcode:2010PhRvA..82c3801C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.82.033801. S2CID 52238985.
• Pasquazi, Alessia; Peccianti, Marco; Razzari, Luca; Moss, David J.; Coen, Stéphane; Erkintalo, Miro; Chembo, Yanne K.; Hansson, Tobias; Wabnitz, Stefan; Del'Haye, Pascal; Xue, Xiaoxiao (2018-01-27). "Micro-combs: A novel generation of optical sources". Physics Reports. 729: 1–81. Bibcode:2018PhR...729....1P. doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2017.08.004. ISSN 0370-1573.