Former Caltech Postdoc Receives Israel Prize

Mordechai (Moti) Segev, a former postdoctoral fellow in Professor Amnon Yariv's group, will be receiving the Israel Prize for Physics and Chemistry. Dr. Segev is receiving the prize for ground-breaking research in the field of optics and lasers. "I am naturally proud of the achievements of former students and postdocs who started their scientific career in my group," says Professor Yariv. "Among this group Moti has become, in the relatively short time since leaving us, one the best known and influential scientists in the world in the field of quantum electronics and its amazing offspring of nonlinear optics. I am looking forward to a continuing stream of intellectual and experimental innovation flowing from him and his research group at the Technion."

The Israel Prize is given out by the State of Israel and is regarded as the state's highest honor recognizing citizens or organizations who have displayed excellence in their field. Moti Segev is a Distinguished University Professor and the Trudy and Norman Louis Professor of Physics, at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. His research interests are in nonlinear optics, solitons, sub-wavelength imaging, lasers and quantum electronics. His most significant research contributions are: the discovery of photo refractive solitons, which took place while at Caltech; the first observation of 2D lattice solitons; the first experimental demonstration of Anderson localization in a disordered periodic system; demonstration of the first photonic topological insulator; and enabling algorithmic methods in sub-wavelength imaging. [List of Past Recipients]