Clara Saraceno: The 2024 SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Award in High-Speed Optics
Clara Saraceno is an internationally recognized leader in the development of high-power ultrafast lasers and their applications for terahertz (Thz) science. Her groundbreaking work on high-power ultrafast lasers and nonlinear conversion into the THz area has had a broad impact on both laser physics and high-frequency systems. She holds the Chair of Photonics and Ultrafast Laser Science at Ruhr University Bochum, where her group’s research focuses on developing advanced ultrafast laser sources and their applications for terahertz science and technology. Born in Argentina, Saraceno studied physics with a specialization in optics and photonics at the Institut d’Optique Graduate School in France, then worked for Coherent in the United States. She pursued her PhD in physics at ETH Zürich under the supervision of Ursula Keller, completing that work in 2012. After several years of postdoctoral research at ETH Zürich and the University of Neuchâtel, she began teaching at Ruhr University in 2016.
Saraceno has presented several times at SPIE conferences and will be part of the LASE Hot Topics line-up during SPIE Photonics West 2024. Saraceno’s accomplishments have been widely recognized: in 2013, thanks to her doctoral thesis, she was the recipient the European Physical Society’s Quantum Electronics and Optics Division Thesis Prize; in 2016, she received a Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; she was the recipient of a European Research Council Starting Grant in 2018; and in 2023, she received the Zhenyi Wang Award for Excellence in Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz) from the Shenggang Liu Education Foundation. In addition to her research-related accomplishments, Saraceno serves as an active mentor for students and postdocs, both within her group and within the wider optics and photonics community, and an active advocate of women in STEM. She is currently featured in the 2024 Women in Optics notebook.
“I have known Professor Saraceno for more than ten years and have interacted with her regularly at scientific meetings,” notes DTU Electro Group Leader Peter Uhd Jepsen. “She is truly a scientist of the highest standing and is, in particular, known and respected worldwide for her pioneering role in developing high-average-power thin-disk femtosecond lasers. In addition to the obvious world-class technology developed by Professor Saraceno, she is also an exceptionally strong role model for young researchers: every day she demonstrates inspiring leadership that brings out the best in her students and collaborators and shows that a good work-life balance is not a hindrance to world-class research.”
Meet the other 2024 SPIE Society Award recipients.
Read more about Clara Saraceno and the SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Award in High-Speed Optics.
