Mr. Yaser Silani - 2023 Optical Science and Engineering, (OSE) Best Dissertation Award Winner

Departmental News

Posted: May 9, 2023

On behalf of the OSE Committee and Chairs, we are pleased to announce that Mr. Yaser Silani is the recipient of the 2023 OSE Best Dissertation Award. For winning this award, Yaser receives a certificate, a gift, and a check for $500.00. Congratulations for writing a manuscript that shows academic scholarship and a dedication to research.

Yaser entered UNM and Optical Science and Engineering (OSE) program in the Fall of 2015. In 2009, he earned his bachelor in Atomic & Molecular Physics from Urmia University in Urmia, Iran. In 2012, he graduated with his Master of Science degree in Photonics from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran.

While in the OSE program, Yaser was awarded several conference travel grants and the UNM Doctoral Conference Presentation Award. In the spring of 2016, he joined Dr. Victor Acosta’s lab at the UNM Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM), and since then, he has been doing research on color centers in diamond and their nano-to-millimeter scale optical applications. While in Dr. Acosta's group, his list of refereed journal articles including refereed conference proceedings was over five (5) publications. Yaser graduated with his PhD degree in Optical Science and Engineering with distinction in the Spring of 2023. His dissertation manuscript was titled “Femtotesla Magnetometry and Nanoscale Imaging with Color Centers in Diamond.” The focus of his thesis was on investigation of diamond Silicon-Vacancy centers for super-resolution fluorescence imaging applications and development of super-sensitive magnetometers based on diamond Nitrogen-Vacancy centers and magnetic flux concentrators.

Dr. Yaser Silani is currently working as a Postdoctoral Associate in the lab of Acosta at UNM. His current research focuses on developing diamond quantum sensors for high-field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.