Amnon Yariv (born April 13, 1930) is an Israeli-American professor of

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

and electrical engineering at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, 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 radiat ...

. 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 land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1954, 1956 and 1958, respectively. 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 and social scienc ...

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 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 professi ...

by the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. In 1992 he was awarded the

Harvey Prize 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 in Haifa. History The prize is named for industrialist and inventor Leo Harvey. T ...

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". 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 form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though ...

. He has said that the highlight of his group's work was the invention of the semiconductor distributed feedback laser, a device widely used in the

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

's fiber-optic communications. Amnon Yariv currently resides in Pasadena, California. He is married to Frances Yariv. 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 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 in Mandatory Palestine Israeli electrical engineers Israeli academics Electrical engineering academics 21st-century American Jews {{US-electrical-engineer-stub