This week we had the priviledge of interviewing Dr. Mikhail Shalaginov. Misha is currently a Post-Doctoral researcher at MIT. His research has covered a variety of areas in nanophotonics from quantum optics to his current work in Mid-Infrared meta-lenses. For his work he has won several awards such as the 2017 College of Engineering outstand graduate student research award, and the 2019 MRS Fall Meeting Best Presentation Award. In this interview we explored his path through academia thus far and his thoughts on what it takes to be a successful researcher.