Govind P. Agrawal is an

Indian American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

physicist and a fellow of Optica, Life Fellow of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

, 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 department and research center at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. The institute grants degrees at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels through the University of Rochester School of Enginee ...

and a professor of physics at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

. He is also a Distinguished scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (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 in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

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 b ...

s, and semiconductor lasers.

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 c ...

, which was then a part of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. He received the

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in physics degree from the

University of Lucknow The University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is a public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1920, the University of Lucknow is one of the oldest government owned institutions of higher edu ...

in 1969, with honors. He received the

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

and

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in physics degrees from the

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...

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

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, 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; , ) 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 Upper divis ...

. 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, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he worked from 1982 to 1988 on semiconductor lasers 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 James Clair Wyant is professor at the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona where he was Director (1999–2005) and Dean (2005–2012). He received a B.S. in physics from Case Western Reserve University and M.S. and Ph.D. in ...

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 is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

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 fibers, and

Awards

Agrawal was elected as the fellow of Optical Society of America (OSA) in 1986. In 1996, he was elected as the fellow of IEEE 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 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 el ...

by the IEEE Photonics Society for "sustained contributions to fiber-optic telecommunication technology through innovative research and authorship of numerous widely-respected books in the field". Agarwal 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 The Esther Beller Hoffman Medal is an award given by The Optical Society that recognizes outstanding contributions by individuals around the world to the fields of optical science and engineering education. The award was established in 1993 and pas ...

by the Optical Society 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 the Optical Society (formerly the Optical Society of America) for "outstanding contributions to physical optics", and is named after Max Born. Recipients SourceThe Optical Society * 2022 Yuri Kivshar * 2021 Anne L ...

of the Optical Society 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. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...

. 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, 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