Khanh Kieu is a tenured Associate Professor at the College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona. He was born and raised in Vietnam. He went to college in St. Petersburg (Russia) in 1997. There, he studied optics with a concentration in laser physics and laser technology from the first year of his undergraduate studies. His department, The Department of Laser-based technologies, was founded in 1964 just a few years after the laser was invented. Khanh Kieu received a B.S. with honor (red diploma) in Applied Physics in 2002. His thesis work was in laser cleaning. In 2004, He received a M.S. with honor in Laser Technologies from the same institution for his research work in laser fabrication of micro-optical elements. He moved to the USA in 2004 for his Ph.D. studies. Thereafter, he received a Ph.D. in Optical Sciences in 2007 from the College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona. During his Ph.D. studies, he worked with Prof. Masud Mansuripur to develop new fiber-based devices. In 2007, he joined Prof. Frank Wise’s group at Cornell University to do research in ultrafast fiber lasers. In 2009, he came back to the College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, as a research faculty. Dr. Kieu started his independent research group in September 2012. He is the founder of Kphotonics, LLC – a startup company supplying compact, low cost ultrafast fiber lasers for research and education.