M. Yasin Akhtar Raja is Professor of Physics and Optical Science Engineering at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Charlotte, NC, USA. He joined UNC Charlotte in 1990 and has served in various faculty positions with leadership roles in planning and program committees. His research expertise in Optical Science and Engineering spans Nanophotonic & Optoelectronic Devices and Components, Integrated Photonics and Optical Networks as well as Internet of Things. He has several patents, published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and refereed conference proceedings. He co-edited a book on “Nanotechnology for Telecommunications”, in June 2010. Professor Raja received his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, conducted pioneering research in semiconductor lasers with ‘resonant-periodic-gain’ (RPG), now called “VCSELs” at CHTM. Prior, he obtained M. Phil. (Lasers) & M.Sc. (Physics) from Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan. At UNC Charlotte, he played leading role in establishing new graduate-degrees MS in Applied Physics and PhD in Optical Science & Engineering. He started/established International Symposia/Conferences series IEEE “HONET ICT” with initial 5-years seed-funding and co-sponsorship by NSF (USA) since 2004. Prof. Raja is a Fellow of SPIE, a Life-Senior Member IEEE and Life-Senior Member of Optica (formerly OSA).