The doctoral degree, i.e. the Ph.D., is primarily intended for students desiring a career in research andor collegiate teaching. The focus is on advanced ECE topics, on learning to perform research and to write research papers, and on making fundamental new contributions to an ECE topic. Students take advanced course work and write a doctoral dissertation, also called a thesis. Program Overview: Students newly admitted to a doctoral program are classified as precandidates. Upon entering a doctoral program, there is a Ph.D. qualifying process, normally completed during the first two years. After all requirements except the dissertation are completed, students become candidates. Students entering the ECE doctoral program with a bachelor’s degree typically become candidates in the third year and and are strongly encouraged to complete the degree within five years. Such students ordinarily complete the requirements for a master’s degree along the way and receive this degree in addition to the Ph.D. A masters thesis is optional. Students who enter the ECE doctoral program with a master’s in the field of their program typically become candidates in their second year and are strongly encouraged to complete the degree within four years. Such students are not ordinarily eligible to receive an additional master’s degree. Optical science at Michigan has a rich tradition in optics dating back to the early 1960’s, when Professor Emmett Leith with Juris Upatnieks first developed optical holography and Professor Peter Franken in Physics discovered second harmonic generation. Since then, optics has continued to grow at the University, which is now home to over 25 faculty across numerous departments and colleges who are involved in state-of-the-art research and engineering in modern optics and photonics. Nine faculty have their primary home in the Optics and Photonics Lab in EECS. The Optics and Photonics laboratories conduct research in the general areas of photonics, quantum optoelectronics, and ultrafast optical science. Specific areas presently under investigation include nonlinear optics, optical MEMS (coupling optical fields to mechanical motion), ultrafast optics, semiconductor quantum optoelectronics, Terahertz generation and applications, fiber and integrated photonics and lasers, high-power fiber lasers, x-ray and EUV generation, quantum optics and quantum computing, optical microcavities, nanophotonics, spectroscopy of single quantum dots, biophotonics, and biophysical studies of biomolecular structure. In addition, the College of Engineering is home to the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS), the country’s foremost center for academic research in ultrafast science. The Center’s research focuses on the development of high peak-power optical sources; ultrafast electronic and optical science; high field physics and technology; and development and application of short wavelength, short pulse optical sources with intensities exceeding 10E22 wattscm2 (presently the world’s record for on-target intensity). Although most students work with faculty in the EECS Department, it is also possible to conduct research with faculty in other departments working on problems such as laser cooling and trapping of atoms, coherent control and wave function engineering in atomic systems, optical metamaterials, and phonons in solids. Finally, many optics faculty are part of the National Science Foundation’s first Frontiers in Physics Center at Michigan. This center, known as Frontiers in Optical Coherence and Ultrafast Science (FOCUS), includes faculty from EECS, NERS, Space Physics, Physics and Chemistry. Specialties: Biophotonics; Fiber and Integrated Photonics and Lasers; Nanophotonics; Nonlinear Optics and MEMS; Optoelectronics; Quantum Optics and Information; Ultrafast Optics.