M. Yasin Akhtar Raja received his Ph.D. from the Center for High Technology Materials at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque where he conducted a pioneering research in VCSELs. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. His research expertise and interests include design, integration, and characterization of photonic components for optical communication and interconnects. He has directed the fabrication and integration of laser arrays for flip-chip bonding for free-space optical interconnections (a DARPA funded project). He designed high-speed short-pulse VCSEL arrays and is working on the concept of VCSEL based WDM sources for metro- and access-networks". He is also engaged in development of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) compensators for high-speed optical signal transport. His research extends to includes wide- band Er:Yb co-doped fiber amplifiers and gain-flattening optical filters. He has several patents and published over 70 articles in journals and conference proceedings. He is a member of IEEE, SPIE, OSA and IEEE Communication Society.