2024 Adolph Lomb Medal Winner

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Optica Names Deep Jariwala the 2024 Adolph Lomb Medal Recipient

Optica is pleased to announce that Deep Jariwala, University of Pennsylvania, USA, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Adolph Lomb Medal. Jariwala is honored for seminal contributions to nano-optics of low-dimensional semiconductors and development of excitonic meta-materials. His most significant independent contributions are in the discovery and development of self-hybridized exciton-polariton meta-structures from layered semiconductors and the demonstration of tunable coupling between photons and magnetic semiconductors as a function of magnetization/spin-order in layered anti-ferromagnetic semiconductors.

Jariwala recievd his undergraduate degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India, and his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, USA. He is currently an Associate Professor and the Peter & Susanne Armstrong Distinguished Scholar in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at Penn. His research interests broadly lie at the intersection of new materials, surface science and solid-state devices for computing, sensing, opto-electronics and energy harvesting applications. Prior to joining Penn, he worked at Caltech Applied Physics and Materials Science as a Resnick Prize Postdoctoral Fellow.

His research spans novel optical materials and optoelectronics devices. In particular, he focuses on excitonic and low-dimensional semiconductors. Over the past several years, his work at Penn has highlighted unique aspects of light-confinement and formation of hybrid-light matter quasiparticles called exciton-polaritons in layered, atomically-thin, excitonic semiconductors. His contributions have led to realization of excitonic metamaterials as well as atomically-thin, near-perfect, semiconducting absorbers for photovoltaics and photodetectors.

Jariwala has received multiple awards including, the AVS Peter Mark Memorial Award, the IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award, the IEEE Nanotechnology Council Early Career Award, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Early Career Scientist Prize in Semiconductors, and the Bell Labs Prize.

Established in 1940, the Lomb Medal is presented to an individual who has made a noteworthy contribution to optics at an early career stage. Contributions from any area of optics, fundamental or applied, are considered. The medal honors Adolph Lomb, the Society’s first treasurer, for his devotion to the Society and the advancement of optics.

About Optica

Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica’s renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement.