2023 Award and Medal Winners
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Optica Names 2023 Award and Medal Winners
"On behalf of the Optica Board and membership, I congratulate the 2023 Awardees for their innovative and pioneering contributions to our field and Society," said Michal Lipson, Optica's 2023 President. "I would also like to thank those who nominated candidates, submitted references and served on selection committees—your service and support of this program is valued and appreciated."
The 2023 recipients are:
Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Prize
Optica’s highest award
Robert Boyd, University of Ottawa, Canada and University of Rochester, USA
For pioneering contributions to nonlinear optics, including slow light, quantum imaging, and the development of nanocomposite optical materials and metamaterials
Esther Hoffman Beller Medal
Harold Metcalf, Stony Brook University, USA
For outstanding mentorship of undergraduate students in hands-on optics research and for organizing an annual symposium for students to present their work during the FiO/LS conference
Max Born Award
Marin Soljacic, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
For seminal contributions to the fields of plasmonics, electromagnetism, and topological photonics
Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award
Alexander L. Gaeta, Columbia University, USA
For his role as founding editor-in chief of Optica and his commitment to excellence in the optics and photonics community
Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award
Brian T. Cunningham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
For innovative and transformative research in optical sensing, spectroscopy, and microscopy as well as leadership and entrepreneurship in technology development of photonic crystal biosensors
Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize
Xiaoyi Bao, University of Ottawa, Canada
For seminal contributions to optical fiber-based systems ranging from telecom testing protocols and instruments, to pioneering work on distributed sensor instrumentation for infrastructure monitoring, to multi-parameter sensing probes for medical imaging
Nick Holonyak Jr. Award
Yeshaiahu Fainman, University of California San Diego, USA
For pioneering contributions to nanoscale science and engineering of ultra-small, sub-micrometer semiconductor light emitters and nanolasers for information processing systems applications
Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award
Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato, University of São Paulo - Instituto de Fisica de Sao Carlos, Brazil
For outstanding contributions to the global impact of optics and photonics and for promoting the field to the general public world-wide
Emmett N. Leith Medal
David Jones Brady, University of Arizona, USA
For the invention of sparse holography
Ellis R. Lippincott Award
Peter R. Griffiths, University of Idaho, USA
For unique achievements and significant contributions to vibrational spectroscopy
Adolph Lomb Medal
William Renninger, University of Rochester, USA
For pioneering contributions to opto-mechanics, ultrashort pulse generation, novel fiber lasers, and multimode nonlinear optics
C.E.K. Mees Medal
Scott Diddams, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
For pioneering innovations leading to the wide-ranging application of optical frequency combs to ultrafast lasers, optical clocks, spectroscopy, microwave synthesis, and astronomy
William F. Meggers Award
Stephan Schlemmer, Universität zu Köln, Germany
For pioneering ultra-sensitive action spectroscopy with fundamental applications to spectra of molecular ions, particularly CH5+, and their key roles in astrochemistry
David Richardson Medal
Turan Erdogan, Plymouth Grating Laboratory, Inc., USA
For numerous contributions to the commercial development of optical components and technologies through remarkable entrepreneurship and business acumen leading to products and applications in numerous areas including optical fiber systems, medical optics, and femtosecond laser technology
Kevin P. Thompson Optical Design Innovator Award
Dr. Eric M. Schiesser, PhD, Synopsys Inc., Optical Solutions Group, USA
For innovation and rigor in optical design methodology
Edgar D. Tillyer Award
Andrew Watson, Apple Inc., USA
For pioneering the application of computational approaches to understand foundational aspects of spatial and temporal vision as well as motion perception and their influential application in the field of image quality
Charles Hard Townes Medal
Andrew Weiner, Purdue University, USA
For ground-breaking work bringing optical frequency combs to the quantum world and developing innovative applications spanning several fields, including coherent control, generation and line-by-line manipulation of frequency combs, and ultrabroadband radio-frequency photonics
R. W. Wood Prize
Alexandra Boltasseva, Purdue University, USA
For groundbreaking contributions to the materials aspects of metamaterials, plasmonics, and nanophotonics
