Govind P. Agrawal is an

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

physicist and a fellow of Optica, Life Fellow of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

, and Distinguished Fellow of the Optical Society of India. He is the recipient of James C. Wyant Professorship of Optics at the

Institute of Optics The Institute of Optics is a academic department, department and research center at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. The institute grants degrees at the bachelor's degree, bachelor's, master's degree, master's and doctorate, do ...

and a professor of physics at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

. He is also a Distinguished scientist at the

Laboratory for Laser Energetics The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) is a scientific research facility which is part of the University of Rochester's south campus, located in Brighton, New York. The lab was established in 1970 with operations jointly funded by the Unite ...

(LLE) in the University of Rochester. Agrawal has authored and co-authored several highly cited books in the fields of non-linear

fiber optics An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

optical communication Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices. The earliest basic forms of optical communication date ...

s, and

semiconductor lasers The laser diode chip removed and placed on the eye of a needle for scale A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD or semiconductor laser or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a diode p ...

Early life

Agrawal was born on July 24, 1951, in Kashipur of the

Nainital district Nainital district is a district in Kumaon division which is a part of Uttarakhand state in India. The headquarters is at Nainital. Nainital District is located in Kumaon Division, and is located in the lower Himalayas. Haldwani is the largest ...

, which was then a part of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. He received the B.S. in physics degree from the

University of Lucknow University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is one of the oldest public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. LU's main campus is located at Badshah Bagh, University Road area of the city with a second ...

in 1969, with honors. He received the

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in physics degrees from the

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT- Delhi) is a Public university, public institute of technology located in Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology created to be a Centre of Excellence for India's training, res ...

, in 1971 and 1974 respectively. He worked in a post-doctoral position in

École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, from 1974 to 1976.

Career

From 1977 to 1979, Agrawal worked as a research associate at the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

. During 1980 and 1981 he worked with the company Quantel, in France. Later, he was a member of technical staff at the

AT&T Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

Murray Hill, New Jersey Murray Hill is an unincorporated community located within portions of both Berkeley Heights and New Providence, located in Union County, in the northern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the longtime central location of Bell ...

, where he worked from 1982 to 1988 on

and nonlinear fiber optics. Agrawal joined University of Rochester in 1989 as a Professor of Optics. In 2013, he received the first Dr. James C. Wyant Professorship in Optics in the

, which was established by James C. Wyant himself. From 2008 to 2013, Agrawal served on the Editorial Advisory Board, and from 2014 to 2020, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Advances in Optics and Photonics Journal of Optical Society of America. According to Agrawal, his research interest shifted from

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

s to

silicon photonics Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most commo ...

in 2000, due to telecommunications bubble burst. After 2010, Agrawal's research focused on temporal waveguides,

graded-index fiber A graded-index fiber, or gradient-index fiber, is an optical fiber whose core has a refractive index that decreases ''continuously'' with increasing radial distance from the optical axis of the fiber, as opposed to a step-index fiber, which ha ...

s, and

Awards

Agrawal was elected as the fellow of

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 ...

(OSA) in 1986. In 1996, he was elected as the

fellow of IEEE , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has 7,236 members designated Fellow, each of whom is associated with at least one of the 41 societies under the IEEE. The Fellow grade of membership is the highest level of membership ...

for "contributions to the development and understanding of semiconductor lasers and fiber-optic communications systems." In 2000, he was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by his alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. In 2012, Agrawal was awarded the Quantum Electronics Award by the

IEEE Photonics Society The IEEE Photonics Society, formerly the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), is a society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), focused on the scientific and engineering knowledge about the field of quantum e ...

for "sustained contributions to fiber-optic telecommunication technology through innovative research and authorship of numerous widely-respected books in the field". Agrawal was awarded the William H. Riker University Award for Graduate Teaching from the

in 2013, during the commencement ceremony. In 2015, he was awarded the Esther Hoffman Beller Medal by the

Optical Society 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 ...

for "inspiring and educating a generation of scientists and engineers involved with fiber-optic communications and other photonics technologies through his seminal textbooks and high-impact scientific articles". Agrawal was the recipient of two major awards in 2019:

Max Born Award The Max Born Award is given by Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America) for ''outstanding contributions to physical optics'' and is named after Max Born, a physicist renowned for his foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and opt ...

of the

and the Quantum Electronics Prize of the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach, supporting physicists to engage in the design and implementation of European s ...

. He was given in 2020 the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hajim School of Engineering of

Publications

Agrawal has authored or co-authored more than 500 research papers in internationally reputed scientific journals and has made more than 200 conference presentations. He has also published 10 books. Most of his publications are highly cited. His book ''Nonlinear Fiber Optics,'' first published in 1989, is now in its sixth edition and has also been translated into several languages. Another book ''Fiber-Optic Communication Systems,'' first published in 1992 and currently in its fifth edition, is used as a standard textbook in many universities for courses on telecommunication. The list of books published by Agrawal is as follows. # G. P. Agrawal and N. K. Dutta,

Semiconductor Lasers The laser diode chip removed and placed on the eye of a needle for scale A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD or semiconductor laser or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a diode p ...

, 2nd ed. (Springer, 2002). # Yu. S. Kivshar and G. P. Agrawal, Optical Solitons: From Fibers to Photonic Crystals (Academic Press, 2003). # G. P. Agrawal, Lightwave Technology: Components and Devices (Wiley, 2004). # G. P. Agrawal, Lightwave Technology: Telecommunication Systems (Wiley, 2005). # M. Premaratne and G. P. Agrawal, Light Propagation in Gain Media: Optical Amplifiers (Cambridge University Press, 2011). # G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 6th ed. (Academic Press, 2019). # G. P. Agrawal, Applications of Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 3rd ed (Academic Press, 2020). # M. Premaratne and G. P. Agrawal, Theoretical Foundations of Nanoscale Quantum Devices (Cambridge University Press, 2021). # G. P. Agrawal, Fiber-Optic Communication Systems, 5th ed. (Wiley, 2021). # G. P. Agrawal, Physics and Engineering of Graded-Index Media (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agrawal, Govind P. 21st-century American physicists Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of Optica (society) Living people 1951 births Indian emigrants to the United States IIT Delhi alumni University of Lucknow alumni Optical physicists