Aaswath Raman

Aaswath Raman

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR/ VICE CHAIR FOR UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Email: aaswath@ucla.edu

Websites

RESEARCH AND INTERESTS
At the Raman lab, we seek to understand how light and heat interact with metamaterials and nanoscale optical structures and devices, with the goal of enabling new technologies. In particular, we are motivated by the possibility of enabling fundamentally new approaches to renewable energy, information processing, sensing, displays and communication systems.
Our research interests span a range of topics, including nanophotonics, thermal photonics, non-Hermitian and non-reciprocal optical systems, radiative cooling, energy systems, and explainable machine learning.
In the recent past, a highlight of our work has been in investigating a mechanism known as radiative cooling. We have shown that using nanophotonic and metamaterials approaches one can harness a ubiquitous and renewable source of energy that remains largely unexploited: the cold of the universe. Our lab is a global pioneer and leader in this technology and its applications to a range of energy systems, from the nanoscale to the building-scale
Our group typically recruits students with backgrounds in Optics & Photonics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and related fields. Students may send their CV and a short statement of interest to aaswath@ucla.edu.
Area of Thesis Guidance: Metamaterials, Optical and Photonic Materials, Nanophotonics, Plasmonics, Thermal Sciences, Energy Systems, Computational Methods
NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS AND BOOKS
  1. David E. Abraham, Robert Yang, Jyotirmoy Mandal, Mackensie Yore, Xin Huang, V. Kelly Turner, Walker Wells, Kirsten Schwarz, David P. Eisenman and Aaswath P. Raman, “Efficient outdoor thermal comfort via radiant cooling and infrared-reflective walls” Nature Sustainability 8, 642-650 (2025).
  2. Jae S. Hwang, Jin Xu and Aaswath P. Raman, “Thermally Tunable Angular Selectivity of Broadband Directional Thermal Emission” Nano Letters 25 (19), 8064-8071 (2025).
  3. Komron Shayegan*, Jae S. Hwang*, Bo Zhao, Aaswath P. Raman and Harry A. Atwater, “Broadband nonreciprocal thermal emissivity and absorptivity” Light: Science & Applications 13, 176 (2024).
  4. Jyotirmoy Mandal, Sagar Mandal, John Brewer, Arvind Ramachandran and Aaswath P. Raman, “Radiative cooling and thermoregulation in the earth’s glow” Cell Reports Physical Science 5, 102065 (2024).
  5. Jyotirmoy Mandal, John Brewer, Sagar Mandal and Aaswath P. Raman, “Solution-Processed Disordered Plasmonic Surfaces as Optics for Infrared Imaging” Laser & Photonics Reviews 2400256 (2024).
  6. John Brewer, Sachin Kulkarni and Aaswath P. Raman, “Resonant Anti-Reflection Metasurface for Infrared Transmission Optics” Nano Letters, 23, 19, 8940–8946 (2023).
  7. Jae Seung Hwang*, Jin Xu* and Aaswath P. Raman, “Simultaneous control of spectral and directional emissivity with gradient epsilon-near-zero InAs photonic structures” Advanced Materials, 35, 39, 2302956 (2023).
  8. Christopher Yeung, Benjamin Pham, Katherine T. Fountaine and Aaswath P. Raman, “DeepAdjoint: An All-in-One Photonic Inverse Design Framework Integrating Data-Driven Machine Learning with Optimization Algorithms” ACS Photonics, 10, 4, 884–891 (2023).
  9. Xin Huang, Jyotirmoy Mandal, Jin Xu and Aaswath P. Raman, “Passive freezing desalination driven by radiative cooling” Joule, 6, 1-14 (2022).
  10. John Brewer, Matthew F. Campbell, Pawan Kumar, Sachin Kulkarni, Deep Jariwala, Igor Bargatin and Aaswath P. Raman, “Multiscale photonic emissivity engineering for relativistic lightsail thermal regulation” Nano Letters, 22, 2, 594-601 (2022).
  11. Christopher Yeung, Ryan Tsai, Benjamin Pham, Brian King, Yusaku Kawagoe, David Ho, Julia Liang and Aaswath P. Raman, “Global Inverse Design Across Multiple Photonic Structure Classes Using Generative Deep Learning“ Advanced Optical Materials, 9 (20), 2100548 (2021). [preprint][Github repository]
  12. Jin Xu, Jyotirmoy Mandal and Aaswath P. Raman, “Broadband directional control of thermal emission” Science, 372 (6450), 393-397 (2021).
  13. Christopher Yeung, Ju-Ming Tsai, Yusaku Kawagoe, Brian King, David Ho, Mark W. Knight and Aaswath P. Raman, “Elucidating the Behavior of Nanophotonic Structures through Explainable Machine Learning Algorithms” ACS Photonics, 7, 8, 2309-2318 (2020). [preprint]
  14. Jyotirmoy Mandal, Yuan Yang, Nanfang Yu and Aaswath P. Raman, “Paints a Scalable and Effective Radiative Cooling Technology for Buildings” Joule, 4 (7), 1350-1356 (2020).
  15. Aaswath P. Raman, Wei Li and Shanhui Fan, “Generating Light from Darkness”, Joule 3, 1–8 (2019).
  16. Aaswath Raman, Marc Abou Anoma, Linxiao Zhu, Eden Rephaeli and Shanhui Fan, “Passive Radiative Cooling below Ambient Air Temperature under Direct Sunlight”, Nature, 515, 540-544 (2014).
IN THE NEWS
EDUCATION
  • Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University (2013)
  • M.S. in Computer Science from Harvard University (2006)
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
  • Fellow, American Physical Society (2025)
  • Fellow, Optica (The Optical Society) (2025)
  • DARPA Director’s Fellowship Award (2023)
  • Materials Research Society (MRS) Kavli Foundation Early Career Lectureship in Materials Science (2022)
  • 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2022)
  • NSF CAREER (2022)
  • Senior Member, National Academy of Inventors (2022)
  • DARPA Young Faculty Award (2021)
  • Hellman Fellow (2020)
  • Sloan Research Fellowship (2019)
  • Materials Research Society (MRS) Nelson Buck Robinson Award for Science and Technology in Renewable Energy (2018)
  • TED 2018 Invited Speaker (2018)
  • MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 (TR35) (2015)
  • Stanford University Postdoctoral Research Award (2013)
  • Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction (2011)
  • SPIE Green Photonics Award (2011)