2026 Max Born Award Winner
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Optica Names Roberto Morandotti the 2026 Max Born Award Recipient
Optica is pleased to announce that Roberto Morandotti, INRS-Energie Mat & Tele Site Varennes, Canada, has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the Max Born Award. Morandotti is honored for pioneering experiments in chip-scale quantum light sources and complex entangled states, as well as for groundbreaking contributions in nonlinear, ultrafast, and terahertz optics.
Morandotti is a Professor and Group Leader in the Energy Materials Telecommunications Department at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS-EMT), Varennes. He received his MS in physics from the University of Genova in 1993, and his PhD in electronics engineering from the University of Glasgow, under the supervision of Stewart Aitchison. He conducted postdoctoral research with Yaron Silberberg at the Weizmann Institute of Science and with Stewart Aitchison at the University of Toronto. He joined INRS-EMT in 2003, where he has since established an internationally recognized research program. His research interests span integrated photonics for quantum technologies and machine-learning applications, as well as terahertz science and its applications.
He has served as Chair and Technical Committee Member at numerous Optica-, IEEE-, and SPIE-sponsored conferences and was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Photonics Society. His contributions to graduate education and mentorship have been recognized by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies and INRS.
Morandotti holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (2016–2030) and is a Fellow of Optica, the Royal Society of Canada, the Engineering Institute of Canada, AAAS, IEEE, APS, SPIE, and IoP. His additional awards/honors include the NSERC Synergy Award, the NSERC Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering, the Prix Marie-Victorin, the Prix Urgel-Archambault, the Leadership in Research Award of the Université du Québec, the IEEE Quantum Electronics Award, and the NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship.
Established in 1982, the Born Award recognizes outstanding contributions to physical optics, theoretical or experimental. It honors Max Born, who made distinguished contributions to physics in general and optics in particular. The award is endowed by the United Technologies Research Center, Physical Optics Corporation, and individuals including Joseph Goodman.
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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.
