BusinessForum THE INTERSECTION OF BUSINESS AND PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY Diversity in photonics strengthens society CONARD HOLTON Dr. Robert Alfano is Distinguished objective was to pay back the people who helped me in my journey to become Professor of Science and Engineering a scientist. Sometimes, I feel like Robin Hood—helping students in Harlem to in the Departments of Physics and attain higher levels of research and education. Education is power, and power Electrical Engineering, and he is the enables a better life. Director and Founder of the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers CH: How did you get started in your career? (IUSL) at The City College of New RA: I did not come from elite schools or work for a premiere research company. York (CCNY). He is well known for I was lucky to work for a small R&D company, GTE Labs in Bayside, Queens, his discovery of the supercontinuum, first as a technician and rising through the ranks to become a member of the for his work with ultrafast technical staff—a great research job. GTE (now Verizon) was the lasers, and for developing underdog in comparison to Bell Telephone. My job was to keep new biomedical technolo- GTE abreast of advances in science. gies and applications. He is A laser group was formed and I was transferred into it under less well known for his im- Alex Lempicki—more good luck. To select modelocked lasers to portant role in advancing investigate and generate picosecond lasers was, again, a break, as women and minorities in well as to have and use the knowledge of solid-state physics that science and technology. was being taught by Prof. Joe Birman (my PhD advisor at NYU) I talked to him about this and Dr. Nate Ockman, who explained underlying optical phys- aspect of his life and about ics of solids. I also thank Esther Conwell, who hired me at GTE the fact that neither the aca- and with whom I worked during my early years there. demic nor commercial sides I also made many major discoveries with Dr. Stan Shapiro, and of the photonics community reflect the with him I learned that we could compete with the best. I made the discovery general U.S. population. It’s no secret of supercontinuum and made the first optical phonon lifetime in crystal with that both women and minorities are Stan. We captured attention in the ultrafast laser field using picosecond laser significantly underrepresented. Are pulses to unravel basic processes worldwide. things changing, and how will the com- When GTE moved from Bayside to Boston, my friend Larry Jacobowitz rec- munity and society benefit? ommended that I apply to CCNY. Mel Lax, a famous theorist, was spearhead- ing the development of CCNY’s physics research under Harry Lustig and an Conard Holton: What brought National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. I was lucky (again) to help make you to CCNY? CCNY the “Harvard of the poor” to do research: Under Provost Lustig, I formed Robert Alfano: CCNY was founded in the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL) to enable state-of-the- 1847 with the mission of offering an af- art ultrafast laser research. Hamamatsu presidents Ralph Eno (U.S.) and Teuro fordable education (once free, now $6330/ Hiruma (Japan) supported my Photonic Application Laboratory at IUSL for five year), and to recruit and support a diverse years with funding and state-of-the-art photodetection equipment (including six student population, reflective of both streak cameras). The Department of Defense (DoD)—in particular, the Army New York City and the global society. Research Office (ARO), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Air Force I was drawn to CCNY by its mission Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the NSF—provided many grants in to educate “disadvantaged” students. I the ‘70s and ‘80s to support our research. like the challenge of being an underdog I had no formal training in high school and little desire to pursue physics. and competing with the best. My main I came from a tough junior high school in East Harlem, continued on page 102 104 June 2015 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World BUSINESS FORUM continued from page 104 RA: Thus far, 54 PhDs have graduated from my lab: 8 are women and 6 are men of racial minority. Some of the African-American graduates of my lab have gone on to hold distinguished positions in academia and business, notably Anthony Johnson (professor of physics and director of CASPR at UMBC), Peter Delfyett (di- rector of the Ultrafast Photonics Group at CREOL), Ardie Walser (Associate Dean of Undergraduate Affairs at the Grove School of Engineering at CCNY), and Jean Dolne (Technical Fellow at Boeing). My women students have passion for science, and work extraordinarily hard with enthusiasm—which I call “the big E.” Women PhD graduates who have made marks in academia include Asima Pradham, professor of physics at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kampur, India. Dana Calistru, now director at Barclays Capital, is an example of how women scientists can achieve at high levels in busi- Dr. Robert Alfano with some distinguished graduates of IUSL ness. An example of a current student is Sabina Grech, who (from left): Dr. Ardie Walser (CCNY), Dr. Roger Dorsinville (CCNY), has worked in my lab on laser tissue welding and was just Dr. Anthony Johnson (UMBC), and Dr. Peter Delfyett (CREOL). accepted to medical school. where my math teacher, Mr. Resnick, championed my math skills. At Teaneck High School, Mr. Lowell took me under his wing and CH: Are your students looking at careers in business or aca- gave me extra advanced math topics. I went to Fairleigh Dickinson demia—or both? What do you say to your students as they University because it was close my house. There, I was lucky to contemplate their future? learn from Jack Felman (on leave from Princeton Advanced Studies) RA: Most are looking for careers in academia. I tell them: As all levels of physics, and I obtained a Physics MS in one year. long as you work hard and have strong passion for what you want to do, your education will improve your life. No one can CH: What has that meant for you personally and as a teacher? take away your PhD, and even if you don’t land exactly where RA: Being a teacher is great. I teach advanced undergraduates you aim for, you can be very accomplished and make impor- in physics and electrical engineering on the state-of-the-art in tant contributions. optical physics. I bring to students my research understand- ing to help them understand the real world. In my early days at CH: You have been involved in many diverse research ac- CCNY, some senior professors said that some of my courses tivities, and biomedical optics has been of particular inter- were too advanced—but I felt confident that I could explain the est. What specific research area is most interesting to you concepts sufficiently. Like Jack Felman, I still push my students right now? to understand at the highest levels. Doing so has allowed me to RA: Currently, my strongest interests are in four projects: 1) expose students to topics like condensed matter, photosynthe- Detecting aggressive cancer using the colors of light, called op- sis, vision, and biomedical research in using state-of-the-art ul- tical biopsy; 2) Solar energy conversion using most of the solar trafast laser hardware and detection systems that they would spectrum to convert photons to electrons and provide current to not have a chance to learn otherwise. produce electricity; 3) Using a complex waveform in optical an- It was not easy to train students who often lacked confidence gular momentum to look at hidden states; and 4) Neuroscience to compete with top universities. Before long, though, smart and and memory research using optics and quantum effects to give eager students such as Peter Delfyett, Anthony Johnson, Stavros a more fundamental picture of what goes on in the brain. Demos, Giovanni Milione, X. Ni, K. M. Yoo, and many others I was inspired to pursue the latter when I met Lingyan Shi, were competing at the highest levels with passion and hard work. then a research associate using a two-photon microscope with femtosecond lasers. After earning a PhD in biomedical CH: Do you now see photonics education expanding to in- engineering with Prof. Bingmei Fu at CCNY, she began a clude more minorities? research associate fellowship working with both myself and RA: There are positions available for all, but at CCNY Physics Prof. Adrian Rodriguez-Contreras of CCNY’s Department of Graduate School there is no special effort to secure minorities. Biology. Now, we have a strong interdisciplinary group involv- ing biology, neuroscience, optical physics, and ultrafast lasers. CH: Women and minorities seem to have made some prog- I am excited about the pioneering work we are doing in optical ress in the academic world—how can you help more of your imaging of the animal brain and resonance Raman research graduates enter and succeed in the business world? for Alzheimer’s disease. 102 June 2015 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World .