SPECTROSCOPY/BIOMEDICAL OPTICS: Alfano wins inaugural Britton Chance award

During BiOS 2011, SPIE announced the launch of the Britton Chance Biomedical Optics award, to honor the memory of the prolific researcher, instructor, and leader whose contributions were so key to biomedical optics and photonics. At BiOS 2012, another prolific researcher, educator, and leader will receive the first Britton Chance award: Robert Alfano, Distinguished Professor of Physics at City College of New York. With the award, the society is recognizing Alfano’s pioneering work in biomedical optics and ultrafast laser spectroscopy—particularly his co-discovery of the supercontinuum white light source.

Alfano adds the prize to a long list of awards and achievements, including the Optical Society’s Charles Hard Townes Award in 2008, and the 2002 Coherent Lifetime Achievement Award in Biomedical Optics.