Amnon Yariv (; born April 13, 1930) is an

Israeli-American Israeli Americans () are Americans who are of full or partial Israeli descent. The Israeli-American community, while predominantly Jewish, also includes various ethnic and religious minorities reflective of Israel's diverse demographics. This c ...

professor of

applied physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination of fac ...

and

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

, known for innovations in

optoelectronics Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radi ...

. Yariv obtained his B.S., M.S. and PhD. in electrical engineering from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1954, 1956 and 1958, respectively.

Career

In 2010, Yariv was selected as a winner of the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

for "scientific and engineering contributions to photonics and quantum electronics that have profoundly impacted lightwave communications and the field of optics as a whole". He has also been selected to receive the IEEE Photonics Award for 2011. Yariv has been a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

since 1991. In 1985 he was awarded the

Harold Pender Award The Harold Pender Award, initiated in 1972 and named after founding Dean Harold Pender, is given by the Faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science of the University of Pennsylvania to an outstanding member of the engineering profess ...

by the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. In 1992 he was awarded the

Harvey Prize The Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Technion in Haifa. The prize has become a ...

by the Technion in Haifa, Israel, for "pioneering contributions to opto-electronics, wave propagation in crystals and nonlinear and phase-conjugate optics, and his demonstration of semiconductor-based integrated optics technology leading to the development of high-speed and stable solid-state lasers". His work has also been recognized by the

Optical Society of America Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...

. He is a Fellow, and has received the Frederic Ives Medal and Esther Hoffman Beller Medal. In 2017, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Society. Yariv has authored several texts on optical electronics and

photonics Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in the form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. E ...

. He has said that the highlight of his group's work was the invention of the semiconductor

distributed feedback laser A distributed-feedback laser (DFB) is a type of laser diode, quantum-cascade laser or optical-fiber laser where the active region of the device contains a periodically structured element or diffraction grating. The structure builds a one-dimensi ...

, a device widely used in the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

fiber-optic communication Fiber-optic communication is a form of optical communication for transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared or visible light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modul ...

Personal life

Amnon Yariv currently resides in Pasadena, California. He was married to Frances Yariv (deceased March 2025). He has three daughters: Danielle Yariv, Dana Yariv and Gabriela (Gavi) Yariv.

References

External links

Optical and Quantum Electronics Laboratory
Yariv's Caltech group
Laureate Photos
with President Obama {{DEFAULTSORT:Yariv, Amnon 1930 births Living people Israeli emigrants to the United States 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences National Medal of Science laureates Jewish American physicists American electronics engineers Laser researchers California Institute of Technology faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Israeli physicists Optical engineers Optical physicists UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Jews from Mandatory Palestine Israeli electrical engineers Israeli academics Electrical engineering academics 21st-century American Jews