Dr James Lee is Co-founder and CEO of Wave Photonics, a Cambridge, UK-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design company that develops computationally-optimised, fabrication-tolerant design libraries and process design kits (PDKs) for customers across quantum, sensing, telecoms and datacoms.

James undertook his PhD in Toshiba’s Quantum Information Group at the University of Cambridge, where he developed photon sources for quantum computing. He holds a master’s degree in Physics from the University of Oxford. Before founding Wave Photonics, he spent 18 months as a quantitative associate in equity derivatives at Credit Suisse, applying statistical and computational methods to financial derivatives.

James co-founded Wave Photonics in 2021, growing the company from an early-stage idea into a venture-backed team of 17 (11 with PhDs) serving customers building photonic products for quantum computing, sensing/LiDAR, defence and telecoms applications. The company’s technology automates photonic component design, letting a complete PDK be adapted to a new fabrication process or wavelength in weeks rather than months, and integrates with industry-standard EDA tools including GDSFactory, Cadence, Synopsys, Latitude Design Systems, Siemens and Luceda.