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February 19, 2025

Radha Nagarajan named to the National Academy of Engineering

By Kirt Zimmer, Head of Social Media Marketing

Radha Nagarajan named to the National Academy of Engineering

Even in the very practical world of engineering, heart-warming stories can inspire. A perfect example of this has just transpired.

Dr. Radha Nagarajan has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He serves as Marvell’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Optical Engineering, in the Datacenter Engineering Group.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, essentially akin to making it into the Hall of Fame of Engineering if such a thing existed. NAE membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education.”  NAE members - who number more than 2,600 - are highly accomplished engineering professionals representing a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines working in business, academia, and government.

The NAE was founded in 1964 by the National Academy of Sciences, which was created by an act of Congress in 1863 and signed by President Abraham Lincoln with the purpose to “investigate, examine, experiment, and report on any subject of science or art.” The NAE is a private, independent, nonprofit institution providing independent advice on matters involving engineering and technology.

Dr. Nagarajan was elected “for advances in high-speed lasers and photonic integration technologies.” Both are critical to modern-day data center optical interconnects. Dr. Nagarajan’s Ph.D. dissertation was about high-speed lasers and, even 30 years later, is still the most cited in his list of publications. Photonic integration is critical for miniaturizing these components for the coming generation of AI scale-up interconnects.

“This is not an honor you work toward as an end game, especially being in an industry where your engineering day job keeps you busy,” said Dr. Najarian. “But it is something that defines your career. I am over the moon!”

In 2001, Dr. Nagarajan started his photonics integration work. He focused on monolithic integration until joining Inphi, where he pivoted to heterogeneous integration - allowing the integration of a variety of electronic components on a silicon photonics substrate. His work at Marvell has advanced this area and is critical to what the company is now doing with co-packaged optical interconnects.

Dr. Nagarajan has been awarded more than 250 US patents and is a Fellow of the IEEE, OPTICA (the Optical Society) and IET (UK). Over his career, he was awarded the IEEE/LEOS Aron Kressel Award, IPRM (Indium Phosphide and Related Materials) Award, and OPTICA David Richardson Medal, in recognition of breakthrough work in the development and manufacturing of large scale photonic integrated circuits.  Most recently, Radha was named to Electro Optics’ The Photonics100 2024 which honors the industry’s most innovative people.

In addition to his work at Marvell, Dr. Nagarajan is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore. He holds a B.Eng. from the National University of Singapore, a M.Eng. from the University of Tokyo, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, all in Electrical Engineering.

Dr. Nagarajan’s formal induction into the NAE will occur in October at the organization’s annual meeting and a black-tie dinner with other inductees.

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