Wim Bogaerts is full professor in the Photonics Research Group of Ghent University and IMEC. He specializes in silicon photonics, design of complex photonics circuits, and programmable photonics. During and after his PhD, he laid the foundations for IMEC's silicon photonics platform, and the multi-project-wafer service ePIXfab which made this technology accessible for many researchers in Europe and beyond. To enable design of these circuits, Wim and his colleagues developed the parametric design software IPKISS. In 2014, Wim co-founded the spin-off company Luceda Photonics, to commercialize IPKISS, which is now used by hundreds of designers worldwide.
In 2016, Wim received a consolidator grant from the European Research Council, and returned full-time to Ghent University, with a research focus on programmable photonics. He also coordinates the European project MORPHIC, which enhances programmable silicon photonic circuits with advanced waveguide MEMS. In 2019 he was an invited professor at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Wim teaches photonic circuit design techniques, at the level of master students as well as specialists in dedicated short courses. He is a very strong adept of Agile and Lean philosophies, with a passion to apply them to the peculiar ecosystem of academic research. He holds a black belt in Lean, and applies this in hands-on workshops for early-career researchers.