Researcher

Gandhi Alagappan is a Principal Scientist at A*STAR’s Institute of High-Performance Computing (IHPC). Beginning with a first-class honours bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, he earned the prestigious ASEAN Undergraduate Scholarship. His academic pursuit continued with a PhD in photonics at the same institution, supported by the esteemed A*STAR Graduate Scholarship. Subsequently, Alagappan conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto, Canada, under Sajeev John, a pioneer in photonics known for his work on photonic crystals and metasurface technology. With 40 first-author journal publications, Alagappan has made substantial contributions to photonics, focusing on integrated optical circuits, quantum photonics and inverse design. His expertise extends to AI-driven discovery of photonic devices, photonic computing acceleration and design automation using large language models. His leadership is evident in project management, and as an adjunct lecturer at Singapore Polytechnic, he actively shapes the next generation of scholars.