Roy Zektzer is an experimental physicist working at the intersection of atomic physics, nanophotonics, and quantum technologies. He is currently a faculty member in the Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University, where he leads a research group focused on hybrid atomic–photonic systems on a chip.

Roy received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where his research centered on nanoscale light-matter interactions, integrating atomic vapors with nanophotonic waveguides and resonators. His doctoral work was recognized with several competitive fellowships and awards, including the Brojde Scholarship and the Feder Prize for student work in communications.

He was awarded the Fulbright, Yad Hanadiv, and JQI Experimental Postdoctoral Fellowships to conduct postdoctoral research at the Joint Quantum Institute (University of Maryland and NIST) in Kartik Srinivasan’s group. During this period, he worked on chip-scale quantum photonic platforms, including frequency combs, nonlinear spectral translation, and strong light–atom interactions. Notably, he demonstrated single-photon-single-atom interactions using hot alkali vapors coupled to integrated microring resonators, pointing toward room-temperature quantum photonic interfaces.

At Bar-Ilan University, Roy leads a lab that explores the interaction between atoms and photonic chips, with the goal of developing scalable hybrid atomic-photonic systems for quantum metrology, computation, and communication. The group combines expertise in quantum information science, quantum photonics, nanophotonics, nanofabrication, atomic physics, and precision metrology, bridging the worlds of light and matter to enable next-generation quantum technologies.