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2025 R. W. Wood Prize Winner

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Optica Names Fiorenzo Omenetto the 2025 R.W. Wood Prize Recipient

Optica is pleased to announce that Fiorenzo Omenetto, Silklab, Tufts University, USA, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the R.W. Wood Prize. Omenetto is honored for pioneering silk-based optics, photonics, and optoelectronics with uses across multiple disciplines at the interface of biology and technology including applications in sustainability, global health, and food safety.

Omenetto is the Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering in the Biomedical Engineering Department and also holds appointments in the Department of Physics and the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tufts University. He received a PhD from Università di Pavia. His research interests are in the convergence of technology, biologically inspired materials, and the natural sciences with an emphasis on new, transformative approaches for sustainable materials for high-technology applications and solutions for global health and sustainability.

He has proposed and pioneered the use of silk as a material platform for advanced technology with uses in photonics, optoelectronics, and nanotechnology applications, and he is a co-inventor on several disclosures on the subject. His technologies are licensed by major corporations, and he is the scientific co-founder of multiple companies that range from room temperature vaccines and food preservation to coral-reef safe reflecting powders for sunscreen.

Omenetto was formerly a J. Robert Oppenheimer Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratories, a Guggenheim Fellow, a recipient of the Tällberg Global Leadership Prize. He is a Fellow of Optica, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Physical Society. His research has been featured extensively in the press with coverage in the most important media outlets worldwide.

Established in 1975, the Wood Prize recognizes an outstanding discovery, scientific or technical achievement or invention in the field of optics. The accomplishment is measured chiefly by its impact on the field of optics and is one that opens a new era of research or significantly expands an established one. It honors the many contributions that R.W. Wood made to optics, and is endowed by Xerox Corp.

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.

 

Photo Credit: Jenna Grace Schad, Tufts University

 

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