Ramachandran Elected SPIE Fellow
By Liz Sheeley
Professor Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE, MSE) has been elected a Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) for his work in structured and singular light beams, and their applications to quantum and atom optics, sensors, telecom and biophotonics; optical fibers and guided wave nonlinear optics; and photonic crystals. SPIE Fellows are distinguished members who have made significant scientific, technical and community contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics and imaging.
“SPIE is one of the foremost organizations that has pioneered the link between academic research and industrial applications, and this elevation is a satisfying confirmation to me that higher order fiber mode technologies, which we have investigated for over a decade, are now considered to be industrially viable,” says Ramachandran.
His research involves the study of the spatial complexity of light, how photons that twist and turn, rather than travel in a straight path, fundamentally alter light-matter interactions. His work has impacted and spawned applications in disparate areas ranging from quantum communications and sensing to high-power lasers and biomedical imaging.
Ramachandran is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), won an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Award from 2013-2015, and is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America. He holds 39 patents, has given 70 invited talks, and his published papers have more than 6500 citations.