Dr. Robert Alfano receives award for laser advancement
Dr. Robert R. Alfano, distinguished professor of science and engineering at the City College of New York and director of the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers, has been named the 2008 recipient of The Optical Society of America's Charles Hard Townes Award.
The award will be presented at society's Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, in May, in San Jose, Calif.
Dr. Alfano was honored for his discovery of and work on passing laser pulses through matter. Its discovery has lead to a vast number of applications and recently played a key role in two Nobel Prize-winning experiments, one in chemistry and one in physics.
The Townes Award, established in 1980, is given in recognition of outstanding experimental or theoretical work, discovery or invention in the field of quantum electronics. The award is named after Charles Hard Townes, 1964 Nobel Prize winner in physics, whose pioneering contributions to lasers led to the development of the field of quantum electronics.
Dr. Alfano and his colleagues hold nearly 100 patents in lasers.
In addition to discovery of the ultrafast supercontinuum light source, Dr. Alfano's achievements include prostate and breast cancer detection with lasers. Rather than using X-rays, Dr. Alfano has used very short light pulses to take images of tumors. He has also developed new crystals for lasers, which have potential applications for optical communication and work over different frequencies.
Dr. Alfano has been a member of CCNY's physics department since 1972. He was appointed Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering in 1987. Prior to joining City College, Dr. Alfano was a research physicist at General Telephone Research Laboratories, from 1964 to 1972. He has published more than 700 papers.
