ICO elects Roberta Ramponi as new president
Politecnico di Milano professor begins her three-year term in October
Roberta Ramponi, director of Italy's Instituto di Fotonica e Nanotechnolgie, has been elected as the new president of the International Commission for Optics (ICO), the international body representing the global optics and photonics community.
Ramponi, who also chairs the Photonics21 work group dedicated to photonics research, education and training and is currently one of ICO's 15 different vice presidents, was elected at the organisation's latest congress, taking place this week in Tokyo, Japan.
She succeeds the current president Yasuhiko Arakawa, director of the Centre for Photonic and Electronic Convergence at the University of Tokyo, and begins her three-year presidential term in October.
Aside from the ICO and Photonics21 roles, president-elect Ramponi has previously served a term as president of the European Optical Society, and is the scientific chair of the Italian national technology platform entitled 'light sources and photonic sensors'.
Having initially worked on the development of laser-based instrumentation for biomedicine, mainly for diagnostic applications, she has since focused on nonlinear and integrated optics, and related applications - including the fabrication and characterisation of waveguides in nonlinear crystals and passive and active glasses.
Most recently, Ramponi has been involved in the design and realization of integrated micro-optofluidic devices, by means of direct writing with femtosecond laser pulses for the fabrication of optical waveguides "“ including the fabrication of integrated optical chips for applications in quantum communications.
