Optica Elects 116 Members from 23 Countries to Its 2027 Fellows Class

The Board of Directors of Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, has elected 116 members from 23 countries to the Society’s 2027 Fellow Class. Optica Fellows are selected based on several factors, including outstanding contributions to research, business, education, engineering, and service to Optica and the wider optics and photonics community. The announcement, released on 23 October 2026, identifies a cohort drawn from universities, national laboratories, and companies across the global photonics landscape, and the new Fellows will be honored at Optica conferences and events throughout 2027.

The election process behind the 2027 class was notably competitive. The Fellow Members Committee, led by Anna Peacock of the University of Southampton in the UK, reviewed a record 287 nominations submitted by current Fellows. Because Fellows can account for no more than 10 percent of the total membership, the Society describes the election process as highly competitive. Candidates are recommended by the Fellow Members Committee and then approved by the Awards Council and the Board of Directors. Optica characterizes Fellows as members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics, a standard that encompasses both scientific achievement and sustained service to the field.

Congratulating the class, Gisele Bennett, Optica’s 2026 President, said: “Congratulations to the 2027 Optica Fellows. These members exemplify excellence in our field. Their election by their peers is a testament to the significant contributions they have made and the impact of their work. We thank them for their dedication, service, and continued commitment to advancing our field.” The Society also thanked all of the nominators and references who supported the fellowship program through the record-setting nomination cycle.

The 2027 roster spans an unusually broad range of technical territory, from quantum photonics and attosecond science to optical fiber networks, biomedical imaging, and terahertz devices. In quantum information and quantum optics, the class includes Jianwei Wang of Peking University, cited for pioneering integrated-photonic quantum science and technologies, from chip-scale quantum communication networks and universal quantum computing to topological quantum photonics. Galan Moody of the University of California, Santa Barbara, was recognized for seminal contributions to integrated quantum photonics and the translation of quantum photonic technologies from fundamental science to commercialization, while Valentina Parigi of Laboratoire Kastler Brossel in France was cited for internationally recognized contributions to multimode quantum optics, photonic quantum technologies, and leadership in experimental quantum information research and education.

Several electees shaped the foundations of quantum and atom-based technologies. Gretchen Campbell of the University of Maryland, College Park, was honored for pioneering the field of “atomtronics,” in which light creates circuits with atoms as analogs to electrons in electronics. James K. Thompson of JILA, NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, was cited for leading the development of continuous superradiant lasers for ultranarrow spectral width and spin-squeezed states of atoms for precision metrology. Ling-An Wu of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, received recognition for outstanding contributions to quantum optics, including establishing the foundation for the field in China and supporting women scientists worldwide. Karl K. Berggren of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was honored for groundbreaking advances and leadership in superconducting nanostrip single-photon detector technology, a detection platform that underpins many quantum photonic experiments, and Neil Na of Artilux was cited for pioneering research, development, and commercialization of germanium-silicon single-photon detection technology.

Ultrafast and attosecond science is strongly represented in the class. Nirit Dudovich of the Weizmann Institute of Science was recognized for pioneering contributions to attosecond science and attosecond metrology, and Misha Ivanov of the Max-Born Institut in Germany was cited for groundbreaking contributions to the foundations and applications of attoscience. Alexandra Landsman of Ohio State University received the distinction for seminal theoretical contributions to strong-field ionization, tunneling-time physics, and attosecond delays, work described as bridging experiment and theory for atoms, molecules, and solids. Peter Dombi of the Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Budapest was honored for outstanding contributions in ultrafast science and femtosecond technology research and for research leadership, while Eric Cormier of the University of Bordeaux was recognized for significant achievements in ultrafast optical science, from pure theory of laser-matter interaction to laser developments leading to technology transfer.

Terahertz and long-wavelength photonics also feature prominently. Miriam Serena Vitiello of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto Nanoscienze in Italy, was cited for groundbreaking studies of light-matter interactions at terahertz frequencies and the invention of active THz nanodevices, micro-lasers, and nanoscopy systems advancing terahertz technology. Benjamin Williams of the University of California, Los Angeles, was recognized for pioneering contributions to the development of terahertz quantum cascade lasers, and Kaushik Sengupta of Princeton University was honored for pioneering contributions to silicon terahertz systems, including THz beamforming arrays, programmable metasurfaces, sensing and imaging, and AI-driven design of next-generation sub-THz and THz technologies. Giacomo Scalari of ETH Zürich was cited for contributions to terahertz optical frequency combs and metamaterials, and Fabian Rotermund of KAIST in the Republic of Korea was recognized for significant contributions to ultrafast lasers, nonlinear optics, and terahertz photonics with 2D carbon materials.

Metasurfaces, nanophotonics, and computational imaging form another major cluster within the class. Qammer H. Abbasi of the University of Glasgow was cited for contributions to photonic metasurfaces, terahertz sensing, and wave-based sensing systems for next-generation communications and healthcare. Amit Agrawal of the University of Cambridge was honored for contributions to nanophotonics and metasurface optics enabling compact spatiotemporal control of light and scalable quantum technologies. Francesco Monticone of Cornell University was recognized for contributions to meta-optics and nanophotonics, including fundamental work on metasurfaces, anomalous scattering, nonlocal and time-varying photonics, and theoretical limits. Jason Gage Valentine of Vanderbilt University was cited for pioneering contributions to low-loss dielectric metasurfaces and meta-optics for image processing and for sustained education in nanophotonics, while Ashok Veeraraghavan of Rice University was honored for outstanding and sustained contributions to the research and development of computational imaging systems for a variety of applications. Guoxing Zheng of Wuhan University was recognized for innovations in photonic metasurfaces with significant contributions to holography, computational imaging, and optical encryption, and Andreas Tittl of Hamburg University of Technology was cited for control of light-matter interactions at their fundamental limits, especially for pioneering the realization of bound states in the continuum.

Biomedical optics and imaging are similarly well represented. Vadim Backman of Northwestern University was honored for inventing optical and photonic technologies that extract nanoscale biological architecture, leading to breakthroughs in genomic and biomedical research. Jinyang Liang of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Canada was cited for contributions to ultrafast and coded optical imaging, and Lingyan Shi of the University of California, San Diego, was recognized for pioneering stimulated Raman and multimodal optical imaging innovations that transformed metabolic imaging and advanced biophotonics research in aging. Haishan Zeng of the University of British Columbia was honored for pioneering contributions to clinically translated endoscopic imaging, rapid Raman spectroscopy, in vivo multiphoton microscopy, and multiphoton photothermolysis therapy, and Jürgen Popp of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology in Germany was cited for pioneering work in translational clinical Raman spectroscopy and leadership in establishing Raman as one of the most important analytical approaches. Additional electees in this space include Kamran Avanaki of the University of Illinois at Chicago, cited for advances in photoacoustic, thermoacoustic, and OCT imaging; Chao Tian of the University of Science and Technology of China, recognized for contributions to photoacoustic tomography spanning physical theory, physics-informed deep learning, system engineering, and clinical translation; Yuankai K. Tao of Vanderbilt University, honored for novel optical imaging systems for clinical diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring in ophthalmology, gastroenterology, and oncology; Peng Fei of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, cited for light-field modulation-based 3D computational fluorescence microscopy; Lei Xi of the Southern University of Science and Technology, recognized for high-performance photoacoustic and multi-modality optical imaging; and Chen Yang of Boston University, honored for contributions to nanophotonics and photoacoustic neuromodulation as a new paradigm for non-genetic, high-precision optical control of neural activity.

Optical communications, fiber technology, and sensing complete the technical breadth of the class. Mikael Mazur of Nokia Bell Labs was cited for pioneering distributed fiber optic sensing over transoceanic distances, and Masahiko Jinno of Keio University was recognized for pioneering contributions to architectures and key enabling technologies for elastic optical networks and spatial channel networks. Antonio Napoli of Nokia Corporation in Germany was honored for pioneering contributions to DSP-enabled coherent optical systems, particularly point-to-multipoint architectures based on digital subcarrier multiplexing, while Roberto Gaudino of the Politecnico di Torino was cited for outstanding theoretical and experimental contributions to the evolution of high-speed passive optical networks. Jie Luo of Yangtze Optical Fiber and Cable was recognized for pioneering innovations in optical fibre technologies, industrial leadership, and global standardisation advancing high-capacity optical communication systems, and Zuqing Zhu of the University of Science and Technology of China was honored for contributions to elastic optical networking and optical data-center networks. In sensing, Miguel Gonzalez-Herraez of the Consejo Superior Investigaciones Cientificas in Spain was cited for pioneering contributions to optical fiber sensing and optical signal processing in fibers, Tao Zhu of Chongqing University for distributed weak-feedback narrow-linewidth fiber lasers and their uses in practical high-performance optical fiber sensing systems, and Gregory Rieker of the University of Colorado Boulder for pioneering applications of frequency comb laser diagnostics in practical environments. The class also honors contributions to education and community service, including Imrana Ashraf of Quaid-I-Azam University in Pakistan for her dedication to optics education and outreach events in rural areas and for students from economically developing countries, Antigone Marino of the Italian National Research Council for leadership in international student engagement initiatives and inclusive scientific collaboration, Danuta Sampson of the Lions Eye Institute at the University of Western Australia for promoting open science and advancing method standardisation in biomedical optics and vision research, and Kedar Khare of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi for outstanding contributions to computational imaging and dedicated leadership in optics education. Together, the 116 electees reflect the full sweep of modern optics and photonics, and they will be formally celebrated across Optica’s conferences and events during 2027.

Subject of Research: Election of 116 researchers from 23 countries as Optica 2027 Fellows for contributions to optics and photonics

Article Title: Optica announces 2027 Fellows class

Article References: Optica announces 2027 Fellows class. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: Optica, Fellows, photonics, optics, quantum photonics, metasurfaces, terahertz, biomedical imaging, optical fiber sensing, ultrafast science, optical communications, science awards