Roberta Ramponi received her MSc in Physics and Specialization Diploma in Medical Physics at the University of Milano, Italy, in 1977 and 1979. In 1980 she joined the National Research Council (CNR) in Milano, Italy as a researcher. In 1992 she became Professor of Physics at the Politecnico di Milano, and from 2013 she has served as the Director of the CNR Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnology. She has been the president of the European Optical Society (2006-2008), and is the president of the International Commission for Optics (2017-2020). She serves on the Executive Board of the European Public Private Partnership Photonics21. In 2020, she received the Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award from OSA.

Ramponi’s research has covered a wide range of activities in the fields of optics, photonics and related applications. During her early career, she made significant contributions to the development of laser-based instrumentation for biomedicine, mainly for diagnostic applications; later on, her research activity focused on nonlinear optics, integrated optics, and more recently on femtosecond-laser micromachining, micro-optofluidics and integrated quantum optics. She is also active in outreach and in the promotion of optics and photonics.