Alexander Gaeta received his PhD in 1991 in Optics from the University of Rochester. He is the David M. Rickey Professor in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University. He was on the faculty of the School of Applied and Engineering at Cornell University from 1992-2015 and served as its Director from 2012-2014. He recently co-founded Xscape Photonics, Inc. and is currently the CEO.

Gaeta has made pioneering contributions to the fields of quantum and nonlinear photonics. These include key advances to nonlinear wave propagation that provided critical understanding to self-focusing and filamentation of ultrashort laser pulses, the generation of slow light via stimulated scattering, and nonlinear processes in photonic crystal fibers.  He and his group have also performed seminal research in nonlinear nanophotonics that enabled photonic-chip dispersion engineering, optical frequency combs, generation of quantum states of light, and all-optical signal processing.

He holds 10 patents, has published more than 300 papers in quantum and nonlinear optics, and is a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher. He served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of Optica and was the Chair of the Optica Publications Council from 2021-2022.

He is a Fellow of Optica, APS, and IEEE.  He is the recipient of the Charles H. Townes Medal and the Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award.