Alexander Gaeta
{{Short description|American physicist (born 1961)}}
Alexander Luis Gaeta (born 1961) is an American physicist and the David M. Rickey Professor of Applied Physics at Columbia University. He is known for his work on quantum and nonlinear photonics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America), and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Alexander L. Gaeta
| alma_mater = University of Rochester
| thesis_title = Stochastic and Deterministic Fluctuations in Stimulated Brillouin Scattering
| thesis_year = 1991
| doctoral_advisor = Robert W. Boyd
| known_for = Nonlinear optics, founding editor of Optica (journal)
}}
Education
Gaeta received his B.S. (1983), M.S. (1985), and Ph.D. (1991) degrees in Optics from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. His doctoral thesis entitled, "Stochastic and Deterministic Fluctuations in Stimulated Brillouin Scattering", was completed under the supervision of Robert W. Boyd. From 1990 to 1992 he held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Optics at the university.{{cite web |title=Curriculum Vitae: Alexander L. Gaeta |url=https://apam.columbia.edu/files/seasdepts/applied-physics-and-applied-math/pdf-files/gaeta_cv_2-16.pdf |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=March 11, 2022}}
Career and research
Gaeta joined the faculty in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University in 1992. He served as its director from 2011 to 2014 and was named the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering in 2013. He also served as the director of the National Science Foundation Center of Nanoscale Systems in Information Technologies from 2008 to 2012. In 2015, he joined the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University where he is the David M. Rickey Professor of Applied Physics and Material Science. In 2011, he co-founded Picoluz, Inc. and in 2022 he co-founded Xscape Photonics. He was the founding editor-in-chief of Optica, the flagship journal of Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America).{{cite web |title=Alexander Gaeta |date=16 May 2017 |url=https://www.apam.columbia.edu/faculty/alex-gaeta |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=March 11, 2022}}
Gaeta has published more than 260 journal papers in various areas of optical physics and photonics. His group performed fundamental studies on propagation of ultrashort laser pulses and slow light.{{Cite journal|last1=Okawachi|first1=Yoshitomo|last2=Bigelow|first2=Matthew S.|last3=Sharping|first3=Jay E.|last4=Zhu|first4=Zhaoming|last5=Schweinsberg|first5=Aaron|last6=Gauthier|first6=Daniel J.|last7=Boyd|first7=Robert W.|last8=Gaeta|first8=Alexander L.|date=2005-04-18|title=Tunable All-Optical Delays via Brillouin Slow Light in an Optical Fiber|journal=Physical Review Letters|language=en|volume=94|issue=15|pages=153902|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.153902|pmid=15904146 |bibcode=2005PhRvL..94o3902O |s2cid=11083380 |issn=0031-9007}} He also pioneered nonlinear optics in gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber, and his group also demonstrated various aspects of ultrafast optical time-lens technology including its application to temporal cloaking.{{cite news |last=Brown |first=David |title='Time cloak' hid event in experiment, physicists say |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/time-cloak-hid-event-in-experiment-physicists-say/2012/01/04/gIQA5rtwaP_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=January 4, 2012}} In collaboration with Michal Lipson’s group, his group performed many of the key demonstrations in nonlinear silicon photonics including dispersion engineering and parametric gain,{{Cite journal|last1=Foster|first1=Mark A.|last2=Turner|first2=Amy C.|last3=Sharping|first3=Jay E.|last4=Schmidt|first4=Bradley S.|last5=Lipson|first5=Michal|last6=Gaeta|first6=Alexander L.|date=June 2006|title=Broad-band optical parametric gain on a silicon photonic chip|url=http://www.nature.com/articles/nature04932|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=441|issue=7096|pages=960–963|doi=10.1038/nature04932|pmid=16791190 |bibcode=2006Natur.441..960F |s2cid=205210957 |issn=0028-0836|url-access=subscription}} generation of correlated photons, Kerr comb generation in microresonators, and supercontinuum generation.
Honors and awards
In 2004 Gaeta was elected a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (now Optica).{{cite web |title=Elected Fellows |url=https://www.optica.org/en-us/get_involved/awards_and_honors/fellow_members/elected_fellows/#G |publisher=Optica |access-date=March 11, 2022}} In 2005 he was elected a of Fellow of the American Physical Society "for pioneering experimental and theoretical investigations of nonlinear optical interactions in photonic crystal fibers and with ultrashort pulses in bulk media."{{cite web |title=APS Fellow Archive |url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=G&year=2021&unit_id=&institution= |publisher=American Physical Society |access-date=March 11, 2022}} He was awarded the 2019 Charles Hard Townes Medal from the then-named Optical Society (OSA){{cite press release |title=The Optical Society Names Alexander Gaeta the 2019 Charles Hard Townes Award Winner |url=https://www.optica.org/en-us/about/newsroom/news_releases/2019/the_optical_society_names_alexander_gaeta_the_2019/ |publisher=Optica |date=April 2, 2019}} and in the same year became an elected Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.{{cite web |title=IEEE Fellows Directory |url=https://services27.ieee.org/fellowsdirectory/home.html#G |publisher=IEEE |access-date=March 11, 2022}}
Gaeta is a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher."[https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/] He is also the 2023 recipient of the Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award from Optica.{{Cite web |title=2023 Distinguished Service Award Winner {{!}} Optica |url=https://www.optica.org/get_involved/awards_and_honors/awards/2023_award_winner_pressreleases/2023fantoneawardwinner/ |access-date=2024-05-14 |website=www.optica.org}}
References
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External links
- [https://www.engineering.columbia.edu/faculty/alex-gaeta Engineering website]
- [https://www.apam.columbia.edu/faculty/alex-gaeta Faculty website]
- [https://gaeta.apam.columbia.edu/ Quantum and Nonlinear Photonics Group]
- [https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__scholar.google.com_citations-3Fuser-3DMvggBtkAAAAJ-26hl-3Den-26oi-3Dao&d=DwIFAg&c=009klHSCxuh5AI1vNQzSO0KGjl4nbi2Q0M1QLJX9BeE&r=Iobmnk0x1YMDSTt_6Rt2X9viyX8ky8lTi3SO93j8Y9c&m=RANK8y1u0ym8nSDgMmpRUwtjbC5IQ6cnfc7aydyQQO_eTd15cAWb6h4nYQOd7MvU&s=_SSsnNne9FtGyg3i2BtnT2FjK0P5vM2_ui7ccv9VnWo&e= Google Scholar]
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Category:University of Rochester alumni
Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society
Category:Fellows of Optica (society)
Category:American optical physicists
Category:Cornell University faculty
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:21st-century American physicists