The IEEE Photonics Society, professional home for an international network of scientists and engineers who represent the laser, optoelectronics and photonics community, is proud to announce the recipient of the Women in Photonics Excellence Award, sponsored by Furukawa Electric Group. This prestigious honor aims to recognize exceptional technical, educational, or societal contributions led by a woman which has had a significant impact to the Photonics community-at-large.
Carmen Menoni, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU), has been chosen as the 2023 recipient, “For leading contributions to the science and application of amorphous oxide coatings to gravitational wave detectors and ultrahigh intensity lasers, as well as exemplary leadership in championing for the inclusion of students and young professionals.”
“I am honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Women in Photonics Excellence Award. I am thankful to Furukawa Electric and the IEEE Photonics Society for establishing this award that recognizes the contributions and impact of women in our field,” shared Menoni.
Menoni received her Ph.D. in Physics from Colorado State University in 1987. Prior to that, she studied Physics at the National University of Rosario, in Argentina. Menoni decided to follow a research career with optical materials, after an inspired introduction to materials science during her graduate education. Since 1991, she has been a member of the faculty in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Her research is in the areas of optical materials and extreme photonics employing ultrashort wavelength light for imaging and spectroscopy. Menoni holds appointments in Chemistry, the School of Biomedical Engineering and the School of Advanced Materials Discovery at Colorado State University.
Menoni is actively involved in using bright coherent beams of light of wavelengths between 10-50 nm for optics applications such as imaging and spectrometry imaging. Her group is also engaged in the synthesis and characterization of amorphous oxide materials. Through a combination of fundamental understanding of the optical and structural properties of the amorphous thin films and device engineering, Prof. Menoni research is advancing the state-of-art in interference coatings for ultra-high intensity lasers and for gravitational wave detectors.
“Furukawa Electric is happy to establish and support the Women in Photonics Excellence Award together with the IEEE Photonics Society,” stated Hideya Moridaira, President of Furukawa Electric. “Professor Carmen S. Menoni has made tremendous contributions to the photonics community from various aspects, and she deserves this recognition.”
Menoni’s work is published in over 200 archival publications, has been presented in over 300 conference presentations. She established XUV Lasers, a spin-out company that specializes in the development of compact extreme ultraviolet (EUV, XUV) and associated high power laser technologies.
Menoni and her team received in 2008 the “R&D Mag 100 Award” for the invention of a table-top 46.9 nm wavelength microscope that can capture images in a single 1 nanosecond with wavelength spatial resolution. The interference coatings developed by Menoni, and produced by ion beam sputtering, are envisioned for use in the next upgrade of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO).
She is Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society (APS), Optica, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and SPIE. Menoni served as the President of the IEEE Photonics Society from 2020-2021, and currently serves as Past-President.
Menoni will receive public recognition for this award during the IEEE Photonics Conference, 12-16 November 2023 in Orlando, Florida, USA.
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