Professor Julius Goldhar Announces Retirement after 41 years

ECE faculty member Juilius Goldhar has announced his retirement after 41 years with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has been named an Emeritus Professor.

Dr. Goldhar was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in the former USSR. His parents were holocaust survivors and refugees from Poland. In 1962, the family emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, where he attended Erasmus Hall High School. After graduating from high school, he went on to earn B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from MIT in 1971 and 1975.

After receiving his Ph.D., Professor Goldhar joined the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where he researched laser technology for inertial confinement fusion. In 1985 he joined the ECE Department, where his teaching and research focused on laser technology, nonlinear optics and quantum communications. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.

Dr. Goldhar was instrumental in the design and construction of the Gaske Quantum Science and Engineering Teaching Lab, which opened in the fall of 2026. The lab supports the ECE Minor in Quantum Science and Engineering by providing students with hands-on experience in quantum computing, quantum communications and quantum sensors.

"For more than four decades, Dr. Goldhar has been a cornerstone of our department - having helped shape not just the evolution of Electrical and Computer Engineering, but also the lives and careers of countless students and colleagues,” says ECE Chair and Professor Sennur Ulukus. “His vision and leadership in advancing quantum science within ECE, most recently in the development of our new Gaske Quantum Teaching Laboratory, have left a lasting foundation that will benefit generations to come. We are deeply grateful for his unwavering commitment, intellectual curiosity, and the enduring legacy he leaves with us. He is a forever Terp, and we celebrate his enduring legacy."

Published April 13, 2026