Steven G. Johnson '95, PhD '01

Professor of Mathematics and Physics
Nanophotonics and the influence of complex geometries on wave phenomena — both analytical theory and computational design.
Research Areas
Condensed Matter Theory
headshot
Office: 2-345
Lab(s): Nanostructures and Computation Group, Personal site,
Affiliated Center(s): Condensed Matter Theory Group (CMT), Materials Research Science & Engineering Center (MRSEC), Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE)
Assistant: Kristin Tims
Assistant Phone: (617) 258-6375

Research Interests

  • The influence of complex geometries (particularly in the nanoscale) on solutions of partial differential equations, especially for wave phenomena and electromagnetism — analytical theory, numerics, and design of devices and phenomena. (See, for example, photonic crystals.)
  • High-performance computation, such as fast Fourier transforms, solvers for numerical electromagnetism, and large-scale optimization.

Biographical Sketch

Steven G. Johnson is Professor of Applied Mathematics and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he joined the faculty in 2004. He received his Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 2001, where he was also an undergraduate student (receiving B.S. degrees in physics, mathematics, and EECS in 1995).

More info:

In the news
A new shoebox-sized laser produces terahertz waves (green squiggles) by using a special infrared laser (red) to rotate molecules of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, packed in a pen-sized cavity (grey). Credits:
In the news

Researchers generate terahertz laser with laughing gas

Device may enable “T-ray vision” and better wireless communication.

Awards & Honors

  • 2009 // Edmund F. Kelly Research Award, awarded every three years by the MIT Mathematics Department for outstanding research by a junior faculty member.
  • 2008 // Ranked among top-10 most-cited authors in the field of “photonic crystals” by ScienceWatch.com (October 2008).
  • 1999 // J. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software (for FFTW); Argonne Natl. Lab., National Physical Lab. (UK), and the Numerical Algorithms Group
  • 1999 // Laurels Award in Electronics (for FFTW), Aviation Week & Space Technology, 1999.

Key Publications

  • Z. Lin, R. Pestourie, C. Roques-Carmes, Z. Li, F. Capasso, M. Soljačić, and S. G. Johnson, “End-to-end metasurface inverse design for single-shot multi-channel imaging,” Optics Express, vol. 30, pp. 28358–28370, July 2022. http://doi.org/10.1364/OE.449985

  • M. Benzaouia, A. Cerjan, and S. G. Johnson, “Is single-mode lasing possible in an infinite periodic system?,” Applied Physics Letters, vol. 117, p. 051102, August 2020. http://doi.org/10.1063/5.0019353

  • O. D. Miller, A. G. Polimeridis, M. T. H. Reid, C. W. Hsu, B. G. DeLacy, J. D. Joannopoulos, M. Soljačić, and S. G. Johnson, “Fundamental limits to the optical response in absorptive systems,” Optics Express, vol. 24, pp. 3329–3364, February 2016. http://doi.org/10.1364/OE.24.003329

  • A. Pick, A. Cerjan, D. Liu, A. W. Rodriguez, A. D. Stone, Y. D. Chong, and S. G. Johnson, “Ab-initio multimode linewidth theory for arbitrary inhomogeneous laser cavities,” Physical Review A, vol. 91, p. 063806, June 2015. http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.91.063806

All Publications