Rhines Endowed Chair Professor Volker J. Sorger, Ph.D.

Professor Volker J. Sorger, Ph.D. has extensive work experience in the field of nanophotonics and photonic computing. Rhines Endowed Chair Professor Volker J. currently serves as the Director of the Florida Semiconductor Institute at the University of Florida since 2023. Prior to this, they were a (Full) Professor at The George Washington University - School of Engineering & Applied Science from 2021, where they also served as the Director of the Institute for Photonics & AI from 2021 to 2023.

Professor Sorger founded Optelligence Company in 2020, which focuses on innovative nanophotonic devices. Before that, they held positions at George Washington University, including Associate Professor from 2017 to 2023 and Assistant Professor from 2012 to 2017, where their research team explored opto-electronic devices and emerging optical information processing. Rhines Endowed Chair Professor Volker J. also worked as a CTO at BitGrid Software Solutions from 2014 to 2016.

Earlier in their career, Professor Sorger was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the NSF Nanoscience and Engineering Center, UC Berkeley from 2011 to 2012. Rhines Endowed Chair Professor Volker J. also gained industry experience as a Novel-Device Intern at Intel in 2006.

Throughout their career, Professor Sorger has made contributions to the fields of nanophotonics, opto-electronics, and photonic computing, with a focus on information processing, logic, and addressing National Grand Challenges.

Rhines Endowed Chair Professor Volker J. Sorger, Ph.D., completed their education in several prestigious institutions. In 2004, they obtained a Master's degree in Physics with a focus on Flash-Memory Devices from The University of Texas at Austin. Later, from 2006 to 2011, they pursued their Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in Energy Research, Opto-electronics, and Materials Research. During this time, they also earned a certificate in the Management of Technology from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, which they completed in 2011.