About

From physics to optical computing

I am a physicist by training and an entrepreneur by choice. I grew up in Italy, where I completed a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Physics at the University of Florence — I did great in all the experimental and applied courses, and managed the theoretical ones. I designed my masters to include a lot of electronics, programming, and applied physics, and I loved it. Maybe I loved it too much since I stayed semi-paid to make a monster of a Master thesis building a ultracold quantum gases experiment from scratch. From there I moved to the UK to pursue a PhD in Applied Photonics at Heriot-Watt University and the National Physical Laboratory, where my research focused on nonlinear optical effects in microresonators: tiny glass rings that trap and manipulate light with extraordinary intensities.

During my doctorate I demonstrated some of the first all-optical digitaldevices based on the Kerr effect — including isolators, circulators, logic gates, and memories; and I also started an MBA from Edinburgh Business School alongside the research. I wanted to understand both sides of turning science into something real.

After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Germany, where I continued working on frequency combs and supervised the next generation of researchers. But the call to try and apply my knowledge to something real was always there. The covid pandemic and the completely random encounter with Michael Kissner finally convinced me to leave academia and start a company. I co-founded Akhetonics in 2022. Our mission is to build the world's first digital all-optical processor, a chip that computes using light instead of electrons, with the potential to break the fundamental power and speed barriers that silicon is hitting.

Research

My academic work spans nonlinear photonics, microresonator frequency combs, and all-optical signal processing. Over the years it has accumulated more than 1,700 citations and an h-index of 18, across more than 20 peer-reviewed publications in journals including Optica, Scientific Reports, and Optics Express. I also hold several patents on nonreciprocal light propagation, and digital photonic computing.

You can find the full list of publications on my Google Scholar profile.

Building a company

Since founding Akhetonics I have grown the team from zero to more than 40 people and counting, gone through the Intel Ignite accelerator and the Airbus Combat Cloud program, and raised the company from idea to a valuation in the tens of millions. The hardest part has been learning to lead, communicate, and make fast decisions with incomplete information, things that are almost inconceivable to the physicist inside.

I am a Certified Scrum Master and Product Owner, and I hold a Six Sigma certification. I believe in keeping teams small, informal, and fast rather than hiding behind process.

Outside the lab and the office

I fly gliders (hold a SPL and working on a TMG rating), dive (advanced open water + nitrox), and spend too much time thinking about sailboats and everything else on my bucket list. I live in Munich, Germany, with my family.