Rate My Professor Stefano Palomba

Associate Professor Stefano Palomba is an experimental physicist in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, where he serves as a core member of the Institute of Photonics and Optical Sciences and the University of Sydney Nano Institute. Born in Italy, he obtained a degree in Optoelectronic Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano and a PhD in Nanoscale Physics from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Following his doctoral studies, he continued his research career at the University of Birmingham before joining the University of Sydney as a lecturer and advancing to Senior Lecturer and then Associate Professor. His work centers on nanophotonics and nanoplasmonics, focusing on the design and development of next-generation technologies such as nonlinear plasmonic waveguides, silicon photonics, hybrid plasmonic circuits, and applications in sensing, nanolasers, and quantum science. Palomba leads projects exploring phenomena like four-wave mixing, second harmonic generation, and Brillouin scattering in integrated platforms, with contributions to advancements in ultrafast optics and two-dimensional materials integration, such as direct growth of monolayer MoS2 on nanostructured silicon waveguides.

Palomba has authored over 50 publications, including high-impact papers such as 'Modular nonlinear hybrid plasmonic circuit' in Nature Communications (2020), 'Nanolasers: More than a decade of progress, developments, and applications' (2024), 'Direct growth of monolayer MoS2 on nanostructured silicon waveguides' (2022), 'Theory of nonlinear plasmonic waveguides' (2021), and 'Pulse length dependent near-infrared ultrafast nonlinearity of gold by self-phase modulation' (2020). His research has accumulated over 2,500 citations. He has secured major funding, including a $1.5 million Medical Research Future Fund grant in 2022 for innovative health and medical research through plasmonic technologies, ARC Discovery Project grants, and the Selby Research Award from the Selby Scientific Foundation in 2014. Palomba teaches courses in nanoscience and nanotechnology, supervises honours and PhD students on photonics projects like optical sensing and neurophotonic interfaces, and engages in service roles within the School of Physics, including leadership in the Physics Foundation and conference organization such as SPIE Micro+Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications.