Joseph H. Eberly
Past President
Joseph Eberly is Carnegie Professor of Physics and Professor of Optics at the University of Rochester, where he is director of the Rochester Theory Center. He is co-author of two textbooks. Lasers, written with Peter Milonni, is in its 17th printing, and Optical Resonance and Two-Level Atoms, with Les Allen, has been translated into Japanese, Polish and Russian.
Eberly's research interests are in the fundamental interactions of laser light and matter, currently focusing on the dynamics of quantum entanglement, multiphoton and high-field processes in atoms, laser propagation in resonant media, and cavity QED. During his career in Rochester he has supervised more than 30 doctoral theses and published more than 300 research articles and reviews. In 2000, for his innovations in freshman-level instruction, he received the university's Goergen Award for artistry in undergraduate teaching.
An active participant in OSA affairs for more than two decades, Eberly has served as a member or chair of the Finance, Townes Award, Wood Prize, and Ives Medal committees, the Society Objectives and Policy Committee as well as the Long-Term Planning Group for publications. He has helped originate and organize national and international meetings including topical conferences, QELS, IQEC and the OSA annual meeting. He led the formulation of strategy for electronic publication at OSA and served for five years as the founding editor of Optics Express. Earlier he was topical editor for JOSA B and on the editorial boards of Optics Letters, Laser Physics and Physical Review A. He serves OSA as a representative on the AIP Investment Advisory Committee. He has served as Chair of DLS/APS and APS Divisional Councillor, and is currently an ex-officio member of the OSA Board of Directors. He was an elected member-at-large of the OSA Board of Directors in 1987-1990.
Eberly is a Fellow of OSA and APS and has been awarded the OSA Townes Medal and senior fellowships from JILA and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and he has been elected a foreign member of the Academy of Science of Poland. He was invited to give the Gilmore Lecture at Oberlin College, the first Asan Lecture of Korea University, the Smoluchowski Medal Lecture in Warsaw, the La Caixa Lecture in Barcelona and the Journal of Physics B Special Lecture in Koscielisko. He has been a member of the advisory boards of the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, the Physics Division of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (ITAMP), and a member of the Triennial Committee of Visitors of the NSF Physics Division and of the Committee on Atomic, Molecular and Optical Science (CAMOS) of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science.
Eberly received his bachelor's degree from Penn State and his master's and doctoral degrees from Stanford.
Advancing the Science and Technology of Light
