Dennis Gabor Award in Diffractive Optics: Min Gu

"Optics is a tremendously exciting field, and nanophonotics is at the frontier of research in so many ways," says SPIE Fellow Min Gu, Distinguished Professor and Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. "Our work is driven by a desire to deliver real solutions to the real issues faced by industry and the community in conjunction with artificial intelligence."

This work has earned Gu the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award in Diffractive Optics, which he accepts "on behalf of the entire research team." The award recognizes his pioneering work in nanoscale information optics, including optically digitized holography and optical data storage using advanced nanomaterials.

Known internationally for his expertise in 3D optical imaging theory, Gu's discoveries are helping drive the development of solutions to some of the biggest challenges in renewable energy, information technology, and big data storage.

"Professor Gu has played a major role in the development of 3D optical imaging theory and its instrumentation for modern optical microscopy, says SPIE Fellow Mitsuo Takeda of Utsunomiya University in Japan, who received the award in 2010. "Specifically, he made great contributions to the progress of information optics through his seminal work on the unification of 3D Fourier optics and nonlinear optical microscopy (based on two-photon and/or multi-photon absorption processes), which has enabled 3D imaging and data writing with the resolution beyond the traditional limit set by Abbe theory."

Named after the Nobel-winning inventor of holography, the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award in Diffractive Optics is presented in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in diffractive wavefront technologies, especially those that further the development of holography and metrology applications.

Gu received the award at SPIE Optics + Photonics in August 2019.