Wasserman Group
utmid-ir.bsky.social
Wasserman Group
@utmid-ir.bsky.social
The mid-IR photonics at UT Austin led by Dan Wasserman. Opinions are my own.
Amazing. My students do extensive repeated cleans on samples b/c the building’s HVAC system spits black dust all over the labs. Experiments are done under a tarp b/c the roof leaks. But @utaustin.bsky.social will spend >300K on a speechwriter b/c we have a pres. who knows nothing about higher ed
July 17, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Just checked and the paper with the clear duplications is still up. @springernature.com has done nothing despite this being a clear, open and shut, case of copying.
@retractionwatch.com
My student was doing a literature search and found a 2023 paper in the Nature/Springer Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials with figures just screen shot from a 2015 paper in Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing. JUST SCREENSHOT AND PASTED!!
@retractionwatch.com
April 28, 2025 at 5:22 PM
The latest from our group published in Laser and Photonics Reviews: doi.org/10.1002/lpor....
UT Mid-IR Photonics grad student Amogh Raju demonstrates record low loss in barium titanate (BTO) waveguides and resonators.
BTO is an intriguing material for integrated photonic applications...
High‐Q Monolithic Ring Resonators in Low‐Loss Barium Titanate on Silicon
Barium Titanate (BTO) boasts one of the largest known Pockels coefficients and offers compatibility with the existing CMOS fabrication infrastructure. However, BTO photonic structures have, to date, ....
doi.org
April 28, 2025 at 2:02 PM
#OPG_OMEx welcomes submissions to a Feature Issue on Epitaxial Materials for Photonics. Excited to be part of the guest editor team for this special issue!!
Submissions close 1 June:
Optical Materials Express Feature issueExpand this Topic
opg.optica.org
April 28, 2025 at 1:43 PM
The latest from our group in ACS Photonics: doi.org/10.1021/acsp...
Led by Research Associate Zarko Sakotic, we show that we can fabricate metal films that mimic the behavior of atomically thin metals, but with a fraction of the loss! This enables plasmonic response out to the mid-IR,
Infrared Metaplasmonics
Plasmonic response in metals, defined as the ability to support subwavelength confinement of surface plasmon modes, is typically limited to a narrow frequency range below the metals’ plasma frequency....
doi.org
April 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Not a great sign when a basketball coach can offer a more spirited defense of academic freedom than @utaustin.bsky.social which has gone radio silent

…and yes I know Steve Kerr is not just any bball coach…he’s actually, on paper, more qualified to be President of UT than Jim Davis, current pres.
Steve Kerr wore a Harvard basketball shirt after the Warriors’ win tonight: “Yes, this is me supporting Harvard. Way to go. Way to stand up to the bully.”
April 18, 2025 at 12:14 PM
It’s great to see a school actually do the right thing, but there is a part of me that is so ashamed of the response of my institution @utaustin.bsky.social in comparison. Our administration can’t even muster an anodyne statement of support for the mission of higher ed.
April 15, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Reposted by Wasserman Group
Photonic integration of plasmonic metal oxide nanocrystal assemblies for ultrastrong coupling and infrared spectral tuning. Collaboration with @utmid-ir.bsky.social and @tmtruskett.bsky.social now out in @pubs.acs.org ACS Nano.
@texasche.bsky.social

#ChemSky 🧪
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
April 12, 2025 at 6:25 PM
So they have revoked the visas now of multiple students in our dept and across the engineering school. No one knows why, it is speculated that in some cases, because of past moving violations!! Where is @utaustin.bsky.social as students plucked from labs and classrooms? Dead silence. Crickets.
April 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
My student was doing a literature search and found a 2023 paper in the Nature/Springer Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials with figures just screen shot from a 2015 paper in Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing. JUST SCREENSHOT AND PASTED!!
@retractionwatch.com
March 3, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Apparently I am now an enemy of the state! My home state podcaster/senator put together a list of "woke" NSF awards which I am proud to say I made three times!!
This notoriety is for an award that helps to cover registration for students attending an electronic materials conference.
Cruz-Led Investigation Uncovers $2 Billion in Woke DEI Grants at NSF, Releases Full Database
www.commerce.senate.gov
February 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
When Roger freaking Goodell has more guts than any university administrator in the country…
Roger Goodell, on the NFL’s DEI policies moving forward: “We’re not in this because it’s a trend. It’s about attracting the best talents.”

“I think we’ll continue those efforts.”
February 4, 2025 at 2:48 AM
My university’s president, who instantly caved and subsequently over complied with the state’s ban on diversity, wishing me a contemplative MLK day before bolting to the rich white private university for bags of 💰 💰…
Hook ‘em!!!
January 19, 2025 at 11:24 PM
< 2 weeks to submit to the 2025 Electronic Materials Conference, 6/25-27, at Duke University.
Abstract submission deadline is 1/27: 2025.emc-conference.org
**Our Broadening Participation program will waive registration fees for all attendees from non-R1 Minority Serving Institutions.**
January 15, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Two things can be true: this guy was the epitome of everything wrong with higher ed administration AND his replacement is likely to be far far worse.

Three things really, if the third is: University administrators are loyal only to that 💰💰💰
UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell stepping down, will be SMU's new top leader
University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell will step down from the flagship this spring to serve as the next leader of Southern Methodist University.
www.houstonchronicle.com
January 7, 2025 at 7:29 PM
UT Mid-IR & Seth Bank’s LASE group’s annual holiday dinner, with special guest appearances from Linran Fan and Lilly Chin and group members. Sonos 40lbs of turkey put away!
December 15, 2024 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Wasserman Group
New perspective article from my group and collaborators @tmtruskett.bsky.social @utmid-ir.bsky.social on the intriguing and surprisingly defect-tolerant collective infrared plasmonic properties of doped metal oxide (ITO) nanocrystals in monolayer superlattices
#ChemSky
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
December 11, 2024 at 4:43 PM
Recent work published in Nanophotonics and selected for the cover. Led by Prof. Viktor Podolskiy and graduate student Jacob LaMountain at UMass Lowell and @utmid-ir.bsky.social graduate student Amogh Raju, we investigate the source of efficient light concentration in metamaterial photonic funnels
December 5, 2024 at 1:01 AM
Fall / Back surgery reading list:
James - Percival Everett: The story of Huckleberry Finn told through Jim’s eyes. Beautifully written, compelling, funny but also brutal. Devoured it in no time. Highly recommend.
December 1, 2024 at 9:01 PM
In the past couple of months @utaustin.bsky.social had its Provost step down, forcibly resigned the dean of the college of liberal arts, and today we learned that the dean of the school of geology is stepping down. Probably not coincidence. Whatever they are brewing must be so incredibly toxic…
November 26, 2024 at 2:28 AM
We got our first entirely AI-generated reviews for a manuscript. Including this gem: "You might need to include relevant keywords related to your manuscript. Keywords are terms or phrases that highlight the main subjects and help improve the manuscript's ranking in search engines."
November 25, 2024 at 6:23 PM
Man everyone in this story comes off looking either utterly craven or just dumb…
Also, what was sort of glossed over was UF’s original top 5 public U ranking which was probably juiced by gaming the numbers. There are at least 5 public U’s in Ca higher regarded than UF
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/u...
Why Did Ben Sasse Resign as President of the University of Florida?
Florida’s star president, Ben Sasse, was among the best paid university presidents ever. He promised a conservative overhaul, but then he resigned, leaving controversy and an embarrassing drop in the ...
www.nytimes.com
November 18, 2024 at 1:56 AM
Reposted by Wasserman Group
UT Austin ECE is hiring faculty in electromagnetics this year (both core and applied)! If you are interested in applying or know someone who might be interested, please refer to our ad:

www.ece.utexas.edu/people/facul...
Tenure-track and Tenured Faculty Positions in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Fall 2025 | Texas ECE - Electrical & Computer Engineering at UT Austin
DescriptionThe Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas Austin has multiple faculty openings with a start date of Fall 2025 for tenure-track and tenu...
www.ece.utexas.edu
November 16, 2024 at 10:44 PM
It is not often that I have cause to compliment the administration of @utaustin.bsky.social but credit where it’s due…
They have switched seamlessly from pointless and time-wasting (though arguably well-intentioned) diversity modules to pointless and time-wasting anti-diversity training modules!
November 16, 2024 at 8:53 PM
1st paper of 2024, in Appl. Phys. Lett., led by Felix A. Estevez H., with RMD Inc. and AFRL, showing bulk passivation of InAsSbBi can result in a ~3x improvement in minority carrier lifetime, an important result for dilute-Bi IR detectors!
doi.org/10.1063/5.01...
January 9, 2024 at 2:01 PM