The Optica Foundation and Coherent, Inc. partnered to create the Bernard J. Couillaud Prize, which provides the opportunity for an early career professional to pursue a compelling and innovative project that has the potential to make a meaningful and positive impact on the science and applications of ultrafast lasers.

The goal is to support individuals in the area of ultrafast photonics for the purpose of providing dynamic and rigorous research with a state-of-the-art approach to solving difficult, real-world problems. Recipients will be granted total research freedom with consideration being given to the following:

1. Work focused on advancing basic research, or pursuing a compelling project that has a meaningful global impact.
2. Efforts focused on transitioning an idea into a commercial innovation

The prize is expected to help the recipient in their pursuit of the most compelling and interesting research issues in ultrafast optics. The Bernard J. Couillaud Prize is a personal prize and is not renewable.

Application Information

How To Apply

Applications will be available at apply.optica.org

Important Dates

Opens 16 December 2024
Closes 14 February 2025

Applicant Requirements

• Must be an Optica member.
• Must be an early career professional (1-5 Years post highest degree) pursuing a compelling project that has a meaningful global impact.
• Demonstrate the unique nature and global reach of the project.
• Conducting research in Ultrafast Lasers
  • Examples of some, but not all, various eligible disciplines within ultrafast lasers: biological imaging, ultrafast pulsing, laser material processing, non-thermal manufacturing and attosecond pulses.

Program requirements recognize and exclude breaks from career timelines (e.g., eldercare; maternity or paternity leave; inability to work due to Covid-19 and lab closures; long-term illness). 

Application Requirements

• Applicant name, institution and contact information
• Applicant CV/Resume* - no more than four (4) pages
• Proposal* covering
  • Current research and the intended goals
  • Potential impact of your project to advance the field of ultrafast lasers
  • Potential for your research to solve real-world challenges and/or have a global impact
  • An overview of how the US$20,000 prize would benefit your research and career
  • Proposals should be no more than two (2) pages
• One example of published work 
• Two (2) references

*These documents must adhere to the following formatting requirements.

Formatting Requirements

1. Paper size must comply with the international standard of A4 (8.3" x 11.7"; 210mmx297mm)
2. A font size of less than 11 points may be used for mathematical formulas or equations, figures, table or diagram captions and when using a Symbol font to insert Greek letters or special characters
3. Margins, in all directions, must be at least 1" (2.54cm)
4. Must use a standard single-column format for text
5. Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier at a font size of 11 points or larger
6. Regardless of font, readability is vital

If you have questions, please contact apply@optica.org.

Recipients

2024 WINNER

Václav Hanus

HUN-REN Wigner RCP, Hungary

for his plans to advance solid state carrier-envelope phase (CEP) detection and its commercial applications.

2023 WINNER

Edoardo Vicentini

CIC nanoGune, Spain

for his state-of-the-art research on digital holography with femtosecond frequency combs.

2022 WINNER

Chiara Trovatello

Columbia University, USA

for her work in Optical Parametric Oscillators and Amplifiers.

2021 WINNER

Bowen Li

University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

for his work on the first bidirectional all-normal dispersion (BANDi) fiber laser, a next-generation dual-comb laser source that generates two frequency combs from a single laser cavity. 

2020 WINNER

Bo Li

Cornell University, USA

for his work on Multiphoton Imaging, with particular focus on advances in neuroscience and disease studies.

2019 WINNER

David Carlson

NIST, USA

for his work on non-linear effects and photonic devices based on tantala (tantalum pentoxide, Ta2O5).

Contributors

About the Endowment

The prize honors the extraordinary contributions of Bernard J. Couillaud, former President and CEO of Coherent and later Chairman of the Board of Directors. A native of France, Couillaud earned his Ph.D. in Laser Physics in 1978 at the University of Bordeaux and later became a full-time professor there. During his time at Bordeaux, he formed a colorful and storied partnership with colleague André Ducasse that pioneered continuous wave and pulsed dye lasers. Finding his way to California, he completed a three-year visiting fellowship at Stanford University that yielded, in collaboration with T.W. Hansch, the Hansch-Couillaud technique of laser frequency stabilization.

Joining Coherent in 1983, he was instrumental in the development of numerous Dye, DPSS and Ti:S lasers in his roles as Director of Engineering, Business Unit Manager, and Vice President of the Laser Group. Along the arc of this extraordinary academic and industrial career, he authored 65 publications and received numerous patents. He became President and CEO of Coherent in 1996 and served in that capacity until 2002. Dr. Couillaud then became Chairman of the Board of Directors until his retirement in 2007. He gave more than a lifetime’s worth of dedication and achievements to physics, lasers and photonics. He remains an inspiration to everyone who called him friend, colleague, boss or mentor.