Boyd named fellow of AAAS

Robert Boyd, known for his pioneering work in nonlinear optical interactions and nonlinear optical properties of materials, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS). The Institute of Optics professor is among 416 members of the association being recognized for their “efforts toward advancing scientific applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.”

Boyd has played a key role in the development of the field of composite nonlinear optical materials (now known as metamaterials), whose properties can be tailored to perform specific tasks.  His lab has used “twisted light” to increase the bit-carrying capacity of a photon. Currently he is exploring the use of epsilon-near-zero materials to create nonlinear photonic devices that could have game-changing implications: for instance, a solid-state system that could serve as a platform for all-optical computation and signal processing using only a few tens of photons.

Boyd says he is “quite pleased” at being named an AAAS fellow. “It means that one has achieved recognition even outside of one’s narrow discipline.”

Boyd is also a fellow of the Optical Society, SPIE, IEEE, and the American Physical Society. His awards include the OSA Charles Hard Townes Award and the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science from the American Physical Society. In 2010 he was awarded a highly competitive Canada Excellence Research chair at the University of Ottawa. He currently directs a major research center there, while still maintaining a research presence at Rochester.