Lluis Torner i Sabata (born in 1961) is a physicist. He founded and lead ICFO from 2002 to 2024 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

(Spain). He is the recipient of the Leadership Award of the Optical Society of America, the Monturiol Medal, Gold Medal of the City of Barcelona, the Creu de Sant Jordi of the Government of Catalonia and the 2016 National Research prize of Catalonia.

Career

Lluis Torner received his PhD at the

Polytechnic University of Catalonia The Polytechnic University of Catalonia (, , ; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest polytechnic university in Catalonia, Spain. UPC's objectives are based on internationalization, as it is one of Europe's techni ...

(UPC) in 1989 after completing a five-year degree in Physics at the

Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. , the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...

, both in Spain. Subsequently, he enjoyed post-doctoral appointments at CREOL of the University of Central Florida. He has been Full Professor at Barcelona Tech since the year 2000. He works in

nonlinear optics Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in Nonlinearity, nonlinear media, that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity ...

and its applications, with emphasis on

optical solitons In optics, the term soliton is used to refer to any optical field that does not change during propagation because of a delicate balance between nonlinearity, nonlinear and dispersion (optics), dispersive effects in the medium. There are two main k ...

. His most cited research contributions are in the areas of light guiding and trapping, optical solitons, light’s orbital angular momentum, and twisted photons. Torner has been elevated to Fellow 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 ...

, the European Optical Society and 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 ...

(currently Optica). He is also a member of the ''Reial Academia de Ciències i Arts de Barcelona'' (RACAB), the

Institut d'Estudis Catalans The Institute for Catalan Studies ( ), also known by the acronym and initialism, acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". It is based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spai ...

(IEC) and the Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales de España (RAC).

Awards

· Medalla Monturiol (2009). · Leadership Award Optical Society of America (2011). · Optoel Award (2011). · Ambaixador Regio7 Award (2012). · Premi Nacional de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2016) · Salvà-i-Campillo Personalitat Destacada Prize (2017). · Nature Mentoring Award (2017). · Creu de Sant Jordi Award (2022). · GoldTalk CINBIO Award (2023). · Gran Margallo Award (2023). · Gold Medal of the City of Barcelona (2023). · Talent d'Honor Fundació Impulsa Award (2024). · AMETIC Award (2024).

References

External links

ICFO Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torner, Lluis Spanish physicists Polytechnic University of Catalonia alumni 1961 births Living people Autonomous University of Barcelona alumni