IEEE Photonics Society presents top international laser award to CCNY鈥檚 Robert Alfano

Dr. Robert R. Alfano, Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering at T九色视频 and one of the world鈥檚 pre-eminent researchers in the field, is the recipient of the (IPS) 2024 . The honor is for Alfano鈥檚 鈥渄iscovery of supercontinuum light source as an enabling technology for diverse applications and tunable Cr4 and Cr3 lasers," IPS said. He鈥檒l receive the award at the 2024 IEEE Photonics Conference, Nov. 10-14, in Rome, Italy.

Karen A. Mergner, the Society鈥檚 senior governance and awards administrator, said the Laser Instrumentation Award recognizes key contributors to the field for developments of laser-based and electro-optical instruments, 鈥渨hich lead to the development of innovative systems enabling major new measurements or process capabilities of relevance to applications in industrial, biomedical, avionic and metrology fields.鈥

The Supercontinuum laser source has been used in diverse applications in various areas of Science and Engineering.

The IEEE Photonics Society is the professional home for a global network of engineers and scientists who represent the photonics community.

In addition to Alfano鈥檚 research in supercontinuum, he has been focused on using ultrafast and steady state spectroscopy and optical properties of materials for direct measurements of optical phonon, vibrations, spin relaxation time, hot carrier effects, inter valley scattering in semiconductors and decay routes of vibrations in organic liquids.

In biology and biomedical optics areas, his research has involved measuring primary events vision and photosynthesis under light excitation. He has pioneered in the field of optical biopsy by contributing to the development of methods to detect cancer using Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy and two photon microscopy and methods to improve optical imaging in scattering media (tissues, fog and clouds). He introduced the concept of Ballistic and Snake-like photons propagating random scattering media with carry information.

Most recently, he explained the mechanism for higher harmonic generation (HHG) and attosecond laser pulses using universal EM Optical Kerr effect using n2 for odd HHG and n1 for even HHG frequencies.

A member of the CCNY faculty since 1972, Alfano is founding director of CUNY鈥檚 CCNY-based Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL) established in 1984. He鈥檚 raised $63M in photonics research funding over the years

Alfano holds 133 patents and has author credits on more than 730 research articles. His work has been cited in other papers more than 49,500 times and H-index of 105. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow as well as a fellow of APS, Optical Society of America (OSA), IEEE and the New York Academy of Sciences.

His honors include the OSA Charles Hard Townes Award (2008); the SPIE Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award (2012); the APS Arthur L Schawlow Prize in Laser Science (2013); the OSA Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award (2016); Inventor of Year from ENYIPLA  (2018); and the SPIE Gold Medal (2019).

About T九色视频
Since 1847, T九色视频 has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm puts at $3.2 billion CCNY鈥檚 annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the 鈥渇or dollar鈥 return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled 鈥Doing Remarkable Things Together鈥 seeks to bring the College鈥檚 Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.

Jay Mwamba
p: 917.892.0374
e: jmwamba@ccny.cuny.edu