Rob Devlin
Events
Rob Devlin
CEO | metalenz
About the Speaker
Rob Devlin is Co-Founder and CEO of Metalenz, the company that brought metasurface optics from academic research into high-volume semiconductor manufacturing. He earned his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University in the lab of Federico Capasso, where his early work helped establish metasurfaces as a viable replacement for conventional optics. His frequently cited research includes a Science cover paper recognized as one of the year’s top breakthroughs, demonstrating the first high efficiency metasurfaces operating across the visible spectrum.
Today, Metalenz optics ship in high-volume systems, with more than 150 million units deployed for 3D sensing applications. By collapsing complex multi-element lens stacks into a single metasurface optic fabricated using existing foundry infrastructure, the company has reshaped the cost, size, and scalability equation for advanced optical systems. Building on this success, Devlin’s team has achieved mass-market readiness for the first polarization-sensitive metasurfaces integrated directly onto image sensors, enabling a new class of information-rich sensing for consumer devices.
In 2025, Devlin received Optica’s Kevin P. Thompson Optical Design Innovator Award for foundational contributions to metasurface design, commercialization, and polarization sensing innovation.
