High-Capacity Contributions
Professor Siddharth Ramachandran Receives SPIE G.G. Stokes Award
by A.J. Kleber
One hundred channels carrying data through a single optical fiber, each one maintaining the integrity of the information it carries through the stabilizing effects of centrifugal force. Twisting, spinning light beams which may revolutionize communications technology in our lifetimes, opening up the looming “data bottleneck” while making that data more robust, and potentially greener as well. This developing methodology, and the discoveries and breakthroughs which have contributed to it over more than a decade of investigation, may be Distinguished Professor of Engineering Siddharth Ramachandran’s crowning achievement.
For his ingenuity, and years of dedicated effort and exploration, Professor Ramachandran has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 SPIE G.G. Stokes Award in Optical Polarization. Named for Sir Gabriel Stokes, a pioneer in physical optics and polarized light at the turn of the last century, the Stokes Award is given for exceptional contributions to the field. The award announcement cites “the elucidation of spin-orbit interaction phenomena” (the physical effects of “twisted” or spinning beams of light) and of course, the discovery of his high-capacity optical fiber transmission method, as well as a variety of other applications for and impacts of his work in medical imaging, fiber-based laser technology, and quantum computing.
In addition to his remarkable achievements in research, Professor Ramachandran is known as a dedicated member of the broader field of optics and photonics. According to colleague and fellow Fellow Member of SPIE Professor Curtis R. Menyuk of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Ramachandran “has been a great contributor to the optics community [ …] especially when it comes to encouraging and supporting the next generation of optics and photonics scientists and engineers,” citing the successful career paths of his graduate students across research, industry, and academics. Professor Ramachandran’s commitment is evident, as well, in the leadership roles he has taken on; most recently as Editor-in-Chief of Optics Express, one of the premiere peer-reviewed scientific journals in optics and photonics.
Professor Ramachandran will receive his award at the SPIE Society Awards Banquet during the 2026 Optics + Photonics conference in August.
Siddharth Ramachandran is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering. He joined the BU ECE faculty in 2010 following a decade as a researcher at Bell Labs. His research interests include nonlinear, ultrafast and quantum photonics, the fundamentals of light-matter interactions, fibers and guided-wave devices. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Optics Express, and is a fellow of AAAS, IEEE, APS, Optica and SPIE. He was named a 2019 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow by the Department of Defense; the agency’s most prestigious award given to an individual researcher.