Damian San Roman obtained his Master's and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering under the supervision of Professor Boon Ooi at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). He joined KAUST in 2010 as a founding class member within the Master’s program in Photonics. He studied dynamic optical transformations for Ph.D. Damian’s Ph.D. work focused on the understanding and modeling of how different physical phenomena affect the permittivity and permeability tensors of materials and material-structures. How such effects (Aharonov-Bohm, Kerr, Thermal Cassimir, plasmonics, and other non-linear effects) could be used to induce changes in the refractive index of a material or its structure. His research ultimately led to the implementation of different refractive index mappings to study the propagation of light in random and fractal-like structures; as well as enabling mappings to confine and reshape the propagation of light in photonic integrated circuits (PIC). He received his Diploma in Physics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 2009. Currently, Damian is working as an Engineer at Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia.

Research Interests

​Damian focused his research interest in solving the inverse electromagnetic problem through a variety of mathematical tools like transformation optics, variational methods, adjoint problem, etc.. With attention to transient refractive index perturbations and their possible applications towards light trapping, light delay lines, and beam transformation for the new generation of light technologies.

Selected Publications

  • D. P. San-Roman-Alerigi, A. B. Slimane, T. K. Ng, M. Alsunaidi, and B. S. Ooi, "A possible approach to optical analogies of gravitational attractors," Optics Express 21, 8298, 2013.
  • D. P. San-Roman-Alerigi, D. H. Anjum, Y. Zhang, X. Yang, A. B. Slimane, T. K. Ng, M. N. Hedhili, M. Alsunaidi, and B. S. Ooi, "Electron irradiation-induced reduction of the permittivity of chalcogenide glass (As2S3) thin film," Journal of Applied Physics 113, 044116, 2013.  arXiv:1208.4542v1
  • D. P. San-Roman-Alerigi, A. B. Slimane, T. K. Ng, M. Alsunaidi, and B. S. Ooi, "On a pragmatic approach to optical analogues of gravitational attractors,"  IEEE Proceedings of Photonics Global Conference  2012. arXiv: 1212.1990 
  • D. P. San-Roman-Alerigi, T. K. Ng, M. Alsunaidi, Y. Zhang, and B. S. Ooi, “Generation of J0 -Bessel-Gauss beam by an heterogeneous refractive index map,” Journal of the Optical Society of America A 29, 1252–1258  2012. DOI:/10.1364/JOSAA.29.001252 | arXiv:1208.4522v1 |​​​
  • D. P. San Roman Alerigi, T.K. Ng, Y. Zhang, A. B. Slimane, and B. S. Ooi, “Monolithic Silicon-based Gauss to J0 Bessel beam conventer,”  Proceedings of PIERS 2012  2012.
  • H. Al-Falih, Y. Khan, Y. Zhang, D. P. San-Roman-Alerigi, D. Cha, B. S. Ooi and T. K. Ng, “Fabrication of tuning-fork based AFM and STM Tungsten probe,” Proceedings of HONET 2011  2011.

Education Profile

  • Masters in Science in Electrical Engineering (Photonics) from KAUST (Saudi Arabia) in 2010.
  • Diploma in Physics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 2009​.

Professional Memberships

  • Junior Research Fellow at UNAM Advanced Optics Laboratory (2006-2009).
  • Teacher assistant for Electrodynamics II at UNAM College of Sciences (2006).
  • Research Fellow at the Joint Quantum Institute at the UMD Atomic and Molecular Optics Laboratory (2007).
  • Research Fellow at the Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques (ICFO) (2008).
  • Research Fellow at KAUST Photonics Laboratory (2009).
  • Teacher assistant for Introduction to Statistics, KAUST (2011).
  • Research Fellow at Estrategia and Desarrollo - Consulting Group (2011).​
  • Teacher assistant for Introduction to Statistics, KAUST (2012).
  • ​Optical Society of America (OSA).
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
  • American Physical  Society (APS).
  • Sociedad Mexicana de Física (SMF).

Awards and Distinctions

  • ​2007 UMD-REU Research Scholarship.
  • 2008 Caixa Catalunya – ICFO Research Scholarship.
  • 2008 UNAM-PAPIIME Research Scholarship.
  • 2008 KAUST Discovery Scholar.
  • 2009 KAUST Provost Award.
  • 2010 KAUST Academic Excellence Award​.