IEEE Photonics Award

Presented for outstanding achievements in photonics.

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Nomination period: Jan 15

View all nomination requirements and details.

Recipient selection is administered by the Technical Field Awards Council of the IEEE Awards Board. For more information, please visit: https://corporate-awards.ieee.org/corporate-awards/#field-award.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:
JANUARY 15

View Present & Past Winners

About the Award

Presented to: An Individual or a team of not more than three

Scope: For outstanding achievements in photonics

Prize: A bronze medal, Certificate and Cash Honorarium

Basis for judging: In the evaluation process, the following criteria are considered: outstanding discovery, significant scientific or technological advancement, important invention, impact on field, and the quality of the nomination.

Introducing Our Award Honorees

We are proud to recognize and celebrate honorees of the IEEE Photonics Award.

Our Most Recent Honoree

Roel Baets

Roel Baets, 2023

For pioneering research in integrated photonics, including silicon, silicon-nitride, III-V devices, and their heterogeneous integration.

Roel Baets has made profound contributions to the field of silicon photonics. He identified the significance of silicon photonics as an emerging technology early on, then made the critical connection to industry and large-scale manufacturing through his association with IMEC, demonstrating the first silicon photonic circuits on the basis of CMOS technology in 2005. This was a major leap in the commercial viability and industrial relevance of silicon photonics. Indeed, his contributions to the field of integrated photonics have enabled the entire value chain. Silicon photonics is now experiencing great commercial success and Baets has been a fundamental contributor to that success. A growing number of semiconductor foundries today offer silicon photonics as a standard process and many established and new companies are developing and selling commercial products based on the technologies and device concepts that Baets contribute to.

Baets is an IEEE Fellow and a senior full professor at Ghent University-IMEC, Ghent, Belgium.

View All Award Winners

Year	Award Winner	Citation
2023	Roel Baets	For pioneering research in integrated photonics, including silicon, silicon-nitride, III-V devices, and their heterogeneous integration.
2022	Rodney S. Tucker	For contributions to photonic device modelling and bridging the gap between device and system-level performance, including energy consumption.
2021	Jack Jewell	For seminal and sustained contributions to the development and commercialization of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL).
2020	Christopher R. Doerr	For sustained pioneering research, development, and commercialization of photonic integrated circuits and devices for telecommunications.
2019	Michal Lipson	For pioneering contributions to silicon photonics.
2018	Ursula Keller	For seminal contributions to ultrafast laser technology enabling important industrial applications and novel scientific breakthroughs.
2017	John Bowers	For pioneering research in silicon photonics, including hybrid silicon lasers, photonic integrated circuits, and ultra-lowloss waveguides.
2016	Mark E. Thompson	For scientific and technical leadership in the conception, demonstration, and development of phosphorescent materials in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays.
2015	Philip St. John Russell	For pioneering contributions to the conception and realization of photonic crystal fibers.
2014	James G. Fujimoto	For pioneering the development and commercialization of optical coherence tomography for medical diagnostics.
2013	Peter F. Moulton	For the discovery of the Ti: Sapphire laser and the development of many novel solidstate laser systems and applications.
2012	Eli Yablonovitch	For pioneering contributions to photonic crystals, the photonic bandgap and photonic bandgap engineering.
2011	Amnon Yariv	“For fundamental contributions to photonics science, engineering and education that have broadly impacted quantum electronics and lightwave communications.
2010	Ivan P. Kaminow	For seminal contributions to electro-optic modulation, integrated optics, and semiconductor lasers, and leadership in optical telecommunications.
2009	Robert L. Byer	For seminal contributions to nonlinear optics and solid-state lasers for commercial applications from precision measurement to manufacturing.
2008	Joseph C. Campbell	For seminal and sustained contributions to the development of high-speed, low-noise long wavelength avalanche photodiodes.
2007	David Neil Payne	For pioneering contributions to the development and commercialization of optical fiber-based technologies for communications, sensors, and high power applications.
2006	Frederick J. Leonberger	For technical leadership, commercialization and practical deployment of photonic component technologies for optical communications.
2005	Rod C. Alferness	For seminal contributions to enabling photonics technologies and for visionary leadership in their application to networks and systems.
2004	Tingye Li	For seminal contributions to enabling photonics technologies and for visionary leadership in their application to networks and systems.