Optics is one of the oldest branches of physics, with foundations going back to the times of Descartes, Huygens, and Newton. Modern optical science spans a variety of diverse topics including the classical optics of lens design and imaging, fiber optics and optical communication, optoelectronic materials and devices, the application of optical methods in medicine, and the fundmental quantum mechanics of the interaction of light with matter, including applications to quantum computing.
At the University of Rochester, research in optical science is carried out in both the Department of Physics and Astronomy and in the Institute of Optics, with several faculty members holding joint appointments in both departments. For a description of the activities of faculty holding appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, please see our Quantum Optics page. Through the Cross-Disciplinary Physics program, students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy are also free to pursue research with other faculty holding appointments in the Institute of Optics. These faculty include:
| Prof. Alonso | Wave propagation; partially coherent wave fields |
| Prof. Berger | Medical Optics |
| Prof. Brown | Optoelectronics |
| Prof. Fienup | Image Processing |
| Prof. George | Physical Optics and Imaging |
| Prof. Guo | High Intensity Laser-Matter Interactions |
| Prof. Houde-Walter | Optoelectronics and Optical Materials |
| Prof. Jacobs | Liquid Crystal Optics |
| Prof. Knox | Ultrafast Optics and Telecommunications |
| Prof. Moore | Optical Engineering |
| Prof. Seka | Laser Physics and Engineering |
| Prof. Teegarden | Optical Materials |
| Prof. Wicks | Semiconductor Lasers and Molecular Beam Epitaxy |
| Prof. Williams | The Human Visual System and Physiological Optics |
| Prof. Zavislan | Optical Engineering and Biomedical Optics |
See also our Quantum Optics and Applied Physics pages.
Faculty
