From 1993-2000, he was a member of the Ultrafast Optical Communications group in Georgia Tech’s Microelectronics Research Center.  His dissertation research involved an integrated-optical serial-to-parallel converter for optical time-division demultiplexing that utilized microcavity-enhanced surface-emitted second-harmonic generation in semiconductor waveguides.  In 2001, he joined the Optical Communications Technology group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he investigated wideband analog optical links, fiber Bragg gratings, and automatic polarization controllers.  Currently he works on free-space optical communications in the Advanced Lasercom Systems and Operations group at Lincoln.  His research interests also include integrated photonic devices, nonlinear optics in semiconductors and optical fiber, advanced optical modulation formats, and high-sensitivity optical receivers.

Dr. Ulmer is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, the IEEE Photonics Society, and the Optical Society of America.