Fotini Karinou

Dr. Fotini Karinou is a Principal Hardware Architect – Optical Technologies at the Strategic Planning & Architecture (SPARC) Organization within Microsoft’s Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure (AHSI) organization, focusing on optical technologies pathfinding, roadmapping, and innovation strategy for future Azure AI and compute systems. Before, she was a Principal Research Manager at Microsoft, working on the development of optical technologies for next-generation cloud computing systems and networks. Her work included optical devices and systems for datacenter networks, quantum networking, and optical storage. Previously, she was a Senior R&D Engineer at Huawei Technologies Ltd in the Optical & Quantum Laboratory at the German Research Centre in Munich, Germany, focusing on optical transmission systems and networks for datacom, metro/access, long-haul and quantum communications. She holds a Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a PhD in optical communications. She has served as Technical Program Committee (TPC) Chair for OFC 2020 and IEEE Summer Topicals 2020 and as TPC member for IEEE/Optica OFC 2018-2021, IEEE/Optica CLEO 2021-2023, IEEE IPC 2020-2024. Currently, she serves as Associate Editor for the IEEE/Optica Journal of Lightwave Technology, and as General Co-Chair for the OFC conference 2025.