People

Principal Investigator

Tara Drake

: Principal Investigator
: PhD Physics, JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder

Graduate Students

Franco Buck

: Graduate Student
: BSc Engineering Physics, New Mexico State University

Gabriel Colacion

: Graduate Student
: BA Physics, Reed College

Lala Rukh

: Graduate Student
: BS Electrical Engineering, Lahore University of Management Sciences

Brandon Stone

: Graduate Student
: BS Physics, Eastern Kentucky University

Ameen Zerrad

: Graduate Student
: BS Engineering Physics, Delaware State University

Yinjuan Zhai

: Graduate Student
: BS Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering, NJUPT

Undergraduate Students

Karis Daskalos

: Undergraduate Student
: BS Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico

Blass Molina Toscano

: Undergraduate Student
: BS Electrical Engineering, University of New Mexico (est. grad 2026)

High School Students

Alumni

Emilio Perez de Juan

: Alumni
: BSc Physics, University of New Mexico (2024)

Emilio was the recipient of the 2023 Rayburn Lab Award and a Rayburn Fellowship to do research in the Drake Lab. In 2024, he successfully completed his Honors Thesis, "Measuring THz Repetition Rate of Microresonator Optical Frequency Combs using Electro-Optic Modulation" and graduated from the Physics and Astronomy program with honors.

Emilio is currently a graduate student at the Institute for Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain (link).

Marie Angelli Ruiz

: Alumni
: BSc Chemical Engineering, New Mexico State University

Marie attended UNM's Quantum Undergraduate Research Experience at CHTM (QU-REACH) in Summer 2022. During this program, she worked in the Drake Lab on experimental setup and design and microresonator characterization. In October 2022, Marie presented her research, "Investigating Fast Frequency Scanning for Thermally Driven Instabilities in Kerr-Microresonator Optical Frequency Combs", at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.