Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli

ICFO -Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques

Nominator: Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli

Nomination Questions:
In 250 words or less, describe why you first became interested in optics/photonics/physics. -
Optics has been my passion since my school days. The word “Photonics” is much more
distinguished today, than it was during my childhood. My father worked for the Department of
Telecommunications and hence, I had the opportunity to closely follow the evolution of telephones
from table-top instruments with a dial, to push-button phones and hand held mobile devices, as I
grew up. I was amazed by the striking difference in the form factor and the internal circuitry in each
generation of telephones. I used to visit my father´s work place during holidays, where I was
introduced to optical fibers and lasers for the first time. I was fascinated by the interplay between
optics and electronics enabling telecommunications. As a result, I developed a strong interest in
optics and electronics, leading to the choice of Mathematics, Physics and Electronics as the major
subjects of study during my graduation. I thoroughly enjoyed and explored all the related courses
during my 3-year graduation and at this point, I got very excited, particularly during the laboratory
courses and wanted to further understand and contribute in these areas. This led to my successful
admission to the master program in Physics at one of the nation´s premier institutes, where I found
myself intrigued by the use of nonlinear optics to generate new colours of light, which was the
topic of my doctoral research, opening the door to live my dream of working in Optics and
Photonics!
In 250 words or less, how does optics play a role in your current position? - The main focus of
my research is the development, study and application of novel coherent light sources, with
tailorable properties in wavelength regions inaccessible to conventional lasers and other existing
technologies. By exploiting optical frequency conversion techniques in novel nonlinear materials
and deploying innovative design architectures, I generate tunable optical radiation in new and
difficult spectral regions from the ultraviolet and visible to the near- and mid-infrared. My research
involves developing coherent light sources based on harmonic generation and mixing, optical
parametric generation and amplification, as well as optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) in various
temporal domains from the continuous-wave (cw) to the ultrafast picosecond and femtosecond
time-scales, with world record performance. Further, I use these OPOs for variety of applications
including spectroscopy, material characterization, optical component testing and structured light
generation. For example, recently, I developed mid-infrared OPO for video-rate hyperspectral
imaging based on nonlinear frequency upconversion, leading towards a faster imaging system for
cancer screening. Hence linear as well as nonlinear optics plays a key role in my research
activities, which include the use of high power cw and ultrafast lasers, investigating complex cavity
designs, novel nonlinear materials, rigorous optical alignment, optical studies of damage
mechanisms, implementing efficient thermal management, dispersion compensation, designing
dielectric mirror coatings, laser beam characterization, high-resolution imaging and their
applications to address pertinent societal challenges.
In 250 words or less, identify the impact receiving this grant would have on your career. - I am
an active OSA member since 2007 and I have been part of various technical groups. I presented
>75 (of 125) contributed and invited papers at prestigious OSA conferences such as CLEO-USA
and CLEO Europe. I published over 55 (of 76) journal papers in esteemed OSA journals such as
Optics Letters and Optica. I am currently serving as an active reviewer for more than 7 OSA
journals, completing >50 comprehensive peer-reviews till date. I strongly believe that the Ivan P.
Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Professional Prize will not only provide me, valued recognition
among my peers, but also enhances my confidence and credibility, paving the way to establish
myself as a prominent researcher. With the help of this grant, I will attend the OSA leadership
meeting, which is a unique platform to expand my scientific network with the new class of OSA
ambassadors and share my academic as well as industrial experience, by connecting with the
student chapters across the world. I would like to serve on the scientific committees of OSA
conferences. This will also help in improving my organizational skills at a bigger scale. Further, I
intend to volunteer in reviewing grant applications and get involved in editorial teams of OSA
journals. Being an aspirant of an academic faculty position, my involvement in the above activities,
through this prize, will make a tremendous positive impact on my long-term career goals in terms
of networking and organizational skills, taking my current professional experience to the next level.
 Personal Profile
Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli received M.Sc. degree in physics from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati,
India, in 2006 and was awarded PhD in photonics with “Excellent-Cum-Laude with Honours” grade from ICFO-
The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Barcelona, Spain, in 2012, for his doctoral thesis entitled, “High-power, fiber-
laser-pumped optical parametric oscillators from the visible to mid-infrared”. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at
ICFO from 2012-2015 and Research Fellow from 2015-2017. He was a Visiting Research Associate at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO, during 2016. Currently, he is a Torres y
Quevedo Fellow at Radiantis and a Visiting Scientist at ICFO. His research interests include fiber-based optical
frequency conversion sources and high-power, continuous-wave and ultrafast optical parametric oscillators
(OPOs) from ultraviolet to the mid-infrared. Throughout his career he worked on several national and
international funded projects such as, “Mid-Infrared Solid-State Laser Systems for Minimally Invasive Surgery
(MIRSURG),” under the European seventh framework program (FP7), Consolider project, “Science and
Application of Ultra-fast and Ultraintense Lasers (SAUUL),” and Mid-infrared Technologies for Sensing (Mid-
TECH) under the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, involving active international
collaborations with renowned research groups including that of a Nobel Laureate (Prof. T. W. Hänsch, MPQ,
Germany). The first compact, table-top, mid-infrared source at wavelengths as long as 6.45 µm for minimally
invasive neurosurgery, which was highlighted in ‘Research*EU Results Magazine’ is one among the several
breakthroughs, that he contributed. Among others, were the insitu optimization of output coupling from a ring
oscillator, novel concepts for the development of highly efficient, continuous-wave, second- and third-
harmonic generation and modelocking of continuous-wave OPOs. He has excellent scientific writing and oral
presentation skills. He published more than 75 peer-reviewed and invited papers in leading international
journals with more than 1300 citations (Web of Science h-index: 20) , in Lasers and OPO technology, along with
over 125 papers (including contributed, postdeadline and invited presentations) in major international
conferences such as CLEO-USA and SPIE Photonics West. His technical expertise and over 4 years of industrial
experience, led to the development of more than 3 commercial products and 4 patents. He served on the
technical committee of NLO50, an international symposium organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of
nonlinear optics and scientific program committees of several international conferences such as Mid-infrared
Coherent Sources, MICS-2018 (Optical Socety of America), 8th EPS-QEOD Europhoton conference (European
Physical Society), 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting-2019. Currently he is serving on the technical committee
of SPIE Photonics West-2019, MICS-2020, Europhoton-2020. Some of his research works were highlighted as
World News in Laser Focus World, Optica and Nature Photonics. His academic excellence was awarded with
first prize for all the three consecutive years during graduation, merit scholarship during postgraduate studies
and ICFO Fellowship during doctoral studies. He was the recipient of ICFO PhD thesis award in 2013 and UPC
extraordinary PhD thesis award in 2014 for his outstanding contribution to applied research. He participated in
the prestigious 66th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting, Germany, in 2016, by selection through world-wide
competition. He is a professional member of scientific bodies such as OSA, SPIE and EPS. He played a major role
in establishing the state-of-the-art nonlinear optics laboratory at ICFO. He mentored several high school and
undergraduate students, supervised five academic doctoral thesis, one industrial doctoral thesis as well as three
master theses, who successfully graduated. Currently he is supervising two PhD students at ICFO. His extra-
curricular activities include development and organization of technical festivals and outreach activities such as
‘El dia de la luz (The day of light)’, Laser workshops for high school students, funded by various professional
organizations such as OSA, SPIE and Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera. He is responsible for the design,
development and implementation of ‘El dia de la luz–II Optics demonstration for high school students’, which
is now organized in three different languages. He also served as Outreach Project Manager at the Knowledge
and Technology Transfer office of ICFO during 2013-2015, where he was responsible for various science
dissemination projects, including “GoPhoton!”, a European-level outreach project, that has been designed and
developed to be implemented during the International Year of Light-2015.

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 Professional Address Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli
Radiantis, Edifici RDIT, Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia
Esteve Terradas, 1, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona) Spain
Personal Address
Av. Constitucion 88, 2º B, Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain
Mobile: +34 663624636, Email: chaitanya.suddapalli@icfo.eu
Born: 18th March 1983, Eluru (India)
Married
Researcher ID, ORCID, Google scholar
Field of Research and Expertise
Nonlinear optics, Optical frequency conversion and nonlinear materials, High power continuous-wave and ultrafast
optical parametric oscillators from the ultraviolet to mid-infrared, Optical frequency combs.
Experience
Enthusiastic, motivated and self-driven scientist in applied photonics with over nine years of extensive experience in
building high-power, continuous-wave as well as ultrafast oscillators. My industrial experience provided me with custom
design and packaging tools for portable and robust operation of the state-of-the art optical parametric oscillators (OPOs)
[1]. Throughout my career, I have developed light sources based on harmonic generation and mixing [2,3], optical
parametric generation and amplification [4], and OPOs [5,6] in various temporal domains from the continuous-wave (cw)
[5] to the ultrafast picosecond and femtosecond time-scales [7] using new nonlinear materials [8,9]. While the challenges
in the development of OPOs in different time-scales are distinct, I have successfully mastered the design and
implementation of advanced OPO systems with special attention to dispersion compensation [6], thermal management
[2,10], novel approaches for improving efficiency [11] and high power generation [2,5] along with extended mid-IR
spectral coverage [12]. Some of the mid-IR OPOs that I have developed were used for interesting applications including
spectroscopy, supercontinuum generation, optical component testing [13], structured beam generation [14] and
upconversion imaging [15]. Further, I have also gained experience in fiber tapering, splicing, laser machining of
microresonators and frequency comb generation as well as their active stabilization.
Career and Education
Laser Scientist, Radiantis, Spain Jan 2017 on wards
Visiting Scientist, Nonlinear optics, ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain Jan 2017 on wards
Visiting Research Associate,
Jan 2016 - Jul 2016
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, Colorado, USA
Research Fellow, Nonlinear optics, ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain Jan 2015 - Jan 2017
Technical Consultant, Radiantis, Spain Jul 2013 - Jan 2017
Outreach Project Manager, Knowledge and Technology Transfer,
Feb 2013 - Feb 2015
ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain
Postdoctoral Researcher, Nonlinear optics,
Jan 2012 - Jan 2015
ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Photonics, ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain
Sep 2007 - Sep 2011
Grade: Excellent-Cum-Laude with Honours
Master of Science (M.Sc.) Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India.
2004 - 2006
CPI: 7.44/10, Academic certification date: May 2006
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Electronics, Andhra Loyola College, India
2000-2003
% marks: 87.0%, Academic certification date: May 2003
Publications & Patents
 Authored >75 peer-reviewed and invited papers in leading international journals in Lasers and OPO technology such
as Optics Letters, Optics Express, Optica, Lasers and Photonics Reviews, Scientific Reports.
 >1300 ISI web of science citations and h-index: 20 (>1800 Google scholar citations and h-index: 24)
 Research highlights in Nature Photonics, Optica and Laser Focus World.
 More than 10 conference proceedings publications.
 Presented more than 10 invited talks and over 125 papers (including contributed and post-deadline presentations) at
major international conferences such as CLEO-USA, CLEO-Europe and SPIE Photonics West.
 Authored 4 international patents.
 More than 3 extracurricular, outreach and media publications.

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Awards and Honours
2019: OSA traveling lecturer grant
2017: Torres y Quevedo fellowship for industrial research in Spain
2016: Selection through world-wide competition for the 66th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, Germany
2014: Univertisat Politécnica de Catalunya outstanding doctoral thesis award in science
2013: ICFO best PhD thesis award for outstanding contributions to applied research
2012: Travel grant from ICFO-KTT for invited talk at IONS Asia-2, Chennai, India
2012-2017: ICFO-Fellowship for doctoral studies in Spain
2006: Research Fellow position at National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad, India
2006: Merit scholarship at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India
2004: All India Rank of 344 in Joint Admission for M.Sc. Physics
2000-2003: First place in the bachelor level academics for all the three years
2003: District level place in NGPE-National Graduate Physics Examination
Industrial Projects
Responsible for designing, prototyping and development of the following commercial systems at Radiantis:
1. TITAN: High power, continuous-wave mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator
2. ZENITH: High power, picosecond mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator
3. MIRage: High power, femtosecond, deep-infrared optical parametric oscillator
Professional Activities
2020: Serving on the Nonlinear Frequency Generation and Conversion: Materials and Devices committee of SPIE
Photonics West, Mid-infrared coherent Sources-2020, Solid-state Lasers Programme Committee, Europhoton-2020
2019: Served as a reviewer for the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting
2018: Served on the technical committee of 8th EPS-QEOD Europhoton conference
2018: Served on the technical committee of Mid-infrared coherence sources conference (MICS)
2012: Served on the technical committee of NLO-50, 50th anniversary of nonlinear optics international symposium, Barcelona
2011 onwards: Serving as a referee to more than 10 international journals
2009: Organizing member of IONS-5 conference, Barcelona
2008-2009: Served as local outreach coordinator of ICFO-OSA student chapter
2005: Organizing member of World Year of Physics, IIT Guwahati
2003: Organizing member of “SPECTRUM”, the technical festival of Andhra Loyola College
Academic Works and Collaborative Projects
Throughout my career, I participated in several national and international funded projects such as, “Mid-Infrared Solid-
State Laser Systems for Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIRSURG),” under the European seventh framework program (FP7),
Consolider project, “Science and Application of Ultra-fast and Ultraintense Lasers (SAUUL),” and Mid-infrared Technologies
for Sensing (Mid-TECH) under the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, with active international
collaborations. I made external research visits and led several internal as well as collaborative research projects:
 ICFO-DTU-Uni. Exeter: Mid-infrared video-rate biomedical upconversion imaging, highlighted as OSA news [15]
 ICFO-MPQ (Group of Prof. T.W. Hänsch): Ultrafast mid-IR OPO, synchronously pumped by 20 fs Ti:sapphire laser
providing broadband, dispersion managed, few-cycle pulses for dual-comb spectroscopy [6]
 ICFO-PRL (Photonic Science Lab): Structured-beam sources based on nonlinear optical frequency conversion [12,14]
 ICFO-Neel Institute: Rapidly angle tuned mid-IR picosecond OPO based on MgO:PPLN cylinder [16]
 ICFO-Uni. Stuttgart: High power femtosecond mid-IR OPOs tunable in the 6-8 μm wavelength range [17,18]
 ICFO: A novel intereferometric technique for insitu optimization of output coupling in a ring oscillator, highlighted as
world news in Nature Photonics [11]
 ICFO: Yb-fiber laser pumped multi-gigahertz picosecond optical parametric oscillator [19]
 ICFO: Patented, picosecond arbitrarily tunable dual-wavelength mid-IR OPO [20]
 ICFO-Uni. Pavia: A compact, table-top picosecond mid-IR source for surgical applications, highlighted in the Research*
EU magazine [21]
Mentoring
 Till data, I have co-supervised 6 doctoral students and 3 master students, who successfully graduated
 As a visiting scientist at ICFO, I am currently supervising 2 doctoral students
 At Radiantis, I served as the industrial supervisor for one doctoral student within the framework of Mid-infrared
Technologies for Sensing (Mid-TECH) ITN project under the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
 Throughout my career, I mentored several bachelor students through various academic programs at ICFO.

Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli 3 of (5)

Outreach Activities
2015: Organized various events during international year of light celebrations: Light splashes, photonics congress and
lab visits.
2014: Responsible for preparing a successfully funded European-level outreach project, “GoPhoton!”
2013: Developed “The magic of light!” and “Pick it up with light!” resulting in outreach publications.
2012: Organized a summer school, “Lasers: An amazing science and technology!,” funded by Fundaci´o Catalunya - La
Pedrera. Event highlighted in a leading newspaper, “La Vanguardia”.
2009: Developed outreach activity, El Día de la Luz-II (The Day of Light-II)-Optics demonstration for high school students
and presented at outreach conferences such as Education and Training for Optics and Photonics (ETOP).
Selected Publications (See Researcher ID or ORCID for complete list of publications)
*Corresponding author
[1] Titan-CW OPO; Zenith-Picosecond OPO; MIRage Mid-IR OPO
[2] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, G. K. Samanta, K. Devi, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “High efficiency, multicrystal, single-pass, continuous-
wave second harmonic generation, Opt. Express. 19(12), 11152-11169 (2011)
[3] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, J. Canals Casals, E. Sanchez Bautista, K. Devi, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Yb-fiber-laser-based, 1.8 W-
average-power picosecond ultraviolet source at 266 nm,” Opt. Lett. 40(11), 2397-2400 (2015)
[4] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, M. Jelínek, M. Baudisch, K. T. Zawilski, P. G. Schunemann, V. Kubecek, J. Biegert, and M. Ebrahim-
Zadeh, “Tunable, high-energy, mid-infrared, picosecond optical parametric generator based on CdSiP2,” Opt. Express. 20(14),
15703-15709 (2012)
[5] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, R. Das, G. K. Samanta, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Optimally output-coupled, 17.5 W, fiber-laser-pumped
continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator,” Appl. Phys. B: Lasers Opt. 102(1), 31-35 (2011)
[6] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, A. Esteban-Martin, T. Ideguchi, M. Yan, S. Holzner, T. W. Hänsch, N. Picqué, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh,
“Few-cycle, broadband, mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator pumped by a 20-fs Ti:sapphire laser,” Lasers & Photonics
Rev. 8(5), L86-L91 (2014)
[7] M. Ebrahim-Zadeh and S. Chaitanya Kumar*, “Yb-fiber-laser-pumped ultrafast frequency conversion sources from the mid-
infrared to the ultraviolet,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron. 20(5), 7600519 (2014) (Invited)
[8] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, P. G. Schunemann, K. T. Zawilski, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Advances in ultrafast optical parametric
sources for the mid-infrared based on CdSiP2,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(11), D44-D56 (2016)
[9] J. Wei, S. Chaitanya Kumar*, H. Ye, P. G. Schunemann, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Performance characterization of mid-
infrared difference-frequency-generation in orientation patterned gallium phosphide,” Opt. Mater. Express 8(3), 555-567
(2018) (Highlighted as Editor´s pick)
[10] S. Ghavami-Sabouri, S. Chaitanya Kumar*, A. Khorsandi, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Thermal effects in high-power
continuous-wave single-pass second harmonic generation,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron. 20(5), 7500210 (2014).
[11] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, A. Esteban-Martin, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Interferometric output coupling of ring optical
oscillators,” Opt. Lett. 36(7), 1068-1070 (2011). (Highlighted in Nature Photonics, in June 2011)
[12] V. Sharma, S. Chaitanya Kumar, G. K. Samanta, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Orbital angular momentum exchange in a
picosecond optical parametric oscillator,” Opt. Lett. 43(15), 3606-3609 (2018)
[13] R. Pfattner, V. Lebedev, E. Laukhina, S. Chaitanya Kumar, A. Esteban-Martin, V. Ramaiah-Badarla, M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, F.
Pelayo García de Arquer, G. Konstantatos, V. Laukhin, C. Rovira, and J. Veciana, “A highly sensitive pyroresistive all-organic
infrared bolometer,” Adv. Electron. Mater. 1(8), 1500090 (2015)
[14] N. Apurv Chaitanya†, S. Chaitanya Kumar†, A. Aadhi, G. K. Samanta, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Ultrafast Airy beam optical
parametric oscillator,” Sci. Rep. 6, 30701-1-6 (2016) †These authors contributed equally
[15] S. Junaid, S. Chaitanya Kumar, M. Mathez, M. Hermes, N. Stone, N. Shepherd, M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, P. Tidemand-
Lichtenberg, and C. Pedersen, “Video-rate, mid-infrared hyperspectral upconversion imaging,” Optica 6, 702-708 (2019)
(Highlighted on OSA Newsroom: Press release, May 2019)
[16] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, J. Wei, A. J. Debray, V. Kemlin, B. Boulanger, H. Ishizuki, T. Taira, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “High-
power, widely tunable, room-temperature picosecond optical parametric oscillator based on cylindrical 5% MgO:PPLN,” Opt.
Lett. 40(16), 3897-3900 (2015)
[17] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, J. Krauth, A. Steinmann, K. T. Zawilski, P. G. Schunemann, H. Giessen, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “High-
power femtosecond mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator at 7 µm based on CdSiP2,” Opt. Lett. 40(7), 1398-1401 (2015)
[18] V. Sharma, S. Chaitanya Kumar, G. K. Samanta, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Orbital angular momentum exchange in a
picosecond optical parametric oscillator,” Opt. Lett. 43(15), 3606-3609 (2018)
[19] O. Kimmelma, S. Chaitanya Kumar*, A. Esteban-Martin, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Multi-GHz picosecond optical parametric
oscillator pumped by 80 MHz Yb-fiber laser,” Opt. Lett. 38(21), 4550-4553 (2013)
[20] V. Ramaiah-Badarla, S. Chaitanya Kumar*, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, “Fiber-laser pumped, dual-wavelength picosecond
optical parametric oscillator,” Opt. Lett. 39(9), 2739-2742 (2014)
[21] S. Chaitanya Kumar*, A. Agnesi, P. Dallocchio, F. Pirzio, G. Reali, K. T. Zawilski, P. G. Schunemann, and M. Ebrahim-Zadeh,
“1.5 mJ, 450 MHz, CdSiP2 picosecond optical parametric oscillator near 6.3 µm,” Opt. Lett. 36(16), 3236-3238 (2011). (Also
listed in October issue of Virtual Journal of Biomedical Optics, 6(9), 2011)

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 Career Summary
1. Enthusiastic, motivated and self-driven scientist in applied photonics with over nine years of experience in
building high-power, continuous-wave as well as ultrafast oscillators.
2. Outstanding doctoral thesis with "Excellent-Cum-Laude with Honours" grade and consistent performance
record.
3. Recipient of ICFO PhD thesis award and UPC extraordinary PhD thesis award for outstanding contribution
to applied research.
4. Participated in the 66th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting. (Selection through world-wide competition).
5. Involvement in several funded research projects with significant contributions to more than two European
level projects.
6. Active international collaborations throughout the career, with renowned research groups including that
of a Nobel Laureate (Prof. T. W.Hansch, MPQ, Germany)
7. Excellent scientific writing and oral presentation skills.
8. Authored/co-authored 4 patents, 77 peer-reviewed and invited papers in leading international journals
with 1319 ISI Web of Science citations (>1868 Google scholar citations) along with research highlights in
Nature Photonics and Laser Focus World.
9. A current ISI Web of Science h-index of 20 (Google Scholar h-index: 24) with a cumulative impact of 247.213
and 88% of publications in Q1 journals with >90% of publications as first/second author, 55% of the
publications as corresponding author.
10. Presented more than 125 papers, including contributed, post-deadline and invited presentations, in major
international conferences such as CLEO-USA and Photonics West.
11. Serving as a reviewer for more than 20 international journals.
12. Experience in serving on technical committees and organizing conferences, workshops as well as
networking events.
13. Key role in establishing the state-of-the-art nonlinear optics laboratory at ICFO.
14. Co-supervised six doctoral and three master students and currently supervising two doctoral students.
15. 2-years of experience as outreach project manager (part-time) and active in organizing outreach activities
for science dissemination.
16. Over 4-years of industrial experience.

My yearly journal publications and citation statistics indicating a consistent research track record.

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 Personal Statement
Ivan P. Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Professional Prize
Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli
Enthusiastic, motivated and self-driven scientist in applied photonics with over nine years of experience in
nonlinear optics together with excellent communication skills and passion for photonics outreach and mentoring.

Optics has been my passion since the early stage of my life. From the table talk about underground telecom fibers
from my father´s work to my laboratory experiments using lasers and optoelectronic components, I was always
fascinated by the applications of light. I had great fun during my bachelor’s project, where I implemented a water-
level indicator based on an infrared light emitting diode and a photo detector, which was also exhibited in the
annual technical festival, “Spectrum” that I organized together with my friends. Alongside my bachelor studies, I
volunteered to provide summer classes for the under privileged school students in my hometown in India, where
I enjoyed teaching. Soon after, I moved on to pursue master’s degree in physics at the prestigious Indian Institute
of Technology Guwahati (IITG), where I was exposed to a whole new universe. This world-class platform
introduced me to a variety of extracurricular skills. I served as the organizing member of the “Einstein Year-2005”
celebrations at IITG, where I was responsible for organizing poster sessions and a quiz program in which high
school students from across the state participated. This was a thought-provoking exercise for me, and I greatly
enjoyed the interaction with those kids.
The opportunity to conduct doctoral research at ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Science, Barcelona is a dream
come true for me, where I worked on the development of the state-of-the-art broadly tunable laser sources. The
applied nature of my research and the invaluable experience of my doctoral advisor gave me unique industrial
perspective, due to which I latter secured the Torres y Quevedo fellowship for industrial research. In 2007, I joined
the Optical Society of America (OSA) as a graduate student, through the ICFO OSA student chapter, which was a

Ivan P. Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Professional Prize provides me valued recognition in the optics
and photonics community, along with a perfect opportunity to enhance my professional experience by
serving on the scientific/editorial committees of the prestigious OSA conferences and Journals.

stepping stone for my professional development. My previous experience in team building, event organization
and leadership, helped me take charge of designing “El Dia de la Luz-II”-optics and photonics demonstrations for
high school students, partly funded by OSA, which we initially organized at the British School of Barcelona and is
now an integral part of ICFO outreach activities. This highly rewarding activity led to my appointment as the
outreach coordinator of chapter during the subsequent year. Since then, I have organized numerous laboratory
visits for students, educators, elderly people, general public and politicians, along with externally funded summer
schools for high school students.
Networking events at international conference such as Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO),
Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP) and Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting, became the platforms
for my professional and personal recognition leading to collaborative projects. I was an organizing member of
IONS conference in Barcelona and presented contributed as well as invited talks at several IONS conferences in
Europe and Asia. The invited position to serve as the project manager for the “GoPhoton!” European-level
outreach project is a testament to my passion for photonics outreach. It was gratifying to see that my
contributions towards local outreach were appreciated. Beyond the active participation in the International Year
of light-2015, I was involved in the development of Schlieren camera, which is now exhibited at CosmoCaixa
science museum in Barcelona. “Light Magic” is one of the exciting projects which took shape as result of my
interaction with an amazing student who is magician by hobby. Funded by the Knowledge and Technology
Transfer office of ICFO, we conceptualized the idea of demonstrating nonlinear optics, conservation of energy
and generating of new colours, with his magic tricks. This project was a grand success and was presented in the
NLO-50 international symposium, celebrating the 50 years of nonlinear optics, attended by several eminent
scientist in the field of nonlinear optics. Further, I also had the pleasure of interacting and mentoring several
bachelor students, providing guidance for their curriculum projects.
Ivan P. Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Professional Prize would give me the opportunity to further
contribute to the optics and photonics community, expand my network and continue to share my academic as
well as industrial experience by engaging in various OSA related activities. In future, I would like to be part of the
editorial teams of esteemed OSA journals, as well as serve on the technical and scientific committees of various
OSA conferences such as CLEO-USA and OSA Frontiers in Optics (FIO). This prize will give me the perfect
opportunity to gain the relevant professional experience to establish myself as a prominent academic researcher.
It provides much valued recognition among my peers within the optics and photonics community. Moreover, I
would greatly appreciate the chance to meet with the new class of the 2020 OSA ambassadors and interact with
the representatives of student chapters from all over the world, during the OSA leadership meeting. Along with
my research whose details are outline in my CV, It gives me immense joy to interacting and shape the next
generation photonic scientists and technocrats. With this prestigious recognition from OSA, I strongly believe that
I will be able to enhance my leadership as well as team skills, significantly boosting my long-term career prospects.
 Majid Ebrahim-Zadeh
ICREA Professor, Fellow, OSA, SPIE
ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences
08860 Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain
Tel: +34-93 553 4047
E-mail: majid.ebrahim@icfo.eu
Web: www.icfo.eu / www.icrea.cat

29 November 2019

Letter of Reference: Dr S. Chaitanya Kumar

It is a great pleasure for me to provide this reference in support of the application of Dr S. Chaitanya Kumar
for Ivan Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Professional Prize of OSA.
Background I have known Chaitanya for more than 12 years. He joined my research group at ICFO in September
2007, and obtained his PhD degree in January 2012, with highest distinction - Excellent Cum Laude with Honors.
His PhD work was focused on the development of novel laser light sources based on optical parametric oscillators
(OPOs) and their application in imaging, spectroscopy, neurosurgery, and cancer detection. During his PhD, he
published an impressive 18 papers in leading international journals, including Optics Letters and Optics Express, 4
Proceedings publications, 24 conference papers in major conferences such as CLEO/USA and CLEO/Europe, and
several research highlights, including Nature Photonics and Laser Focus World. In recognition of his
exceptionally successful PhD, he was awarded two separate and highly competitive prizes - ICFO Best PhD Thesis
Prize (2012), and the UPC Extraordinary Thesis Award (2014). By any standard, his research work to date has
been an impressive achievement in an experimentally intensive field, both in terms of productivity and quality, as
can be confirmed by a quick inspection of his publications in leading international journals and major conferences
worldwide, which include several invited journal papers and invited presentations, and a strong citation record.
The volume and quality of his publications are certainly exceptional compared to his peers of similar age.
Scientific achievements During 2012-2017, Chaitanya was post-doctoral fellow in my group continuing to
advance OPO technology to new limits in mid-IR by exploiting nonlinear materials. Indeed, he is the only
researcher in the world with expertise in OPO technology in all time-scales – from cw and nanosecond to ultrafast
picosecond, femtosecond, and few-cycle regime. While the theoretical concepts in parametric generation and
nonlinear frequency conversion in different time-scales are very similar, in practice, the experimental know-how to
develop such technology are very intricate and require markedly different set of skills, which, to my knowledge
has been achieved only by Chaitanya and no other researcher worldwide. As such, throughout his scientific career
to date, Chaitanya has made unique breakthroughs in OPOs and frequency conversion technology in all temporal
domains. Due to limited space, I only highlight two examples of his achievements. He was the first to demonstrate
the potential of the new nonlinear crystal, CdSiP2, for the generation of tunable radiation in the mid-IR using the
OPO concept. The material is now firmly recognized as a primary candidate for mid-IR generation and routinely
used by many researchers worldwide. He also developed two cutting-edge, broadband, few-cycle OPO systems,
which he successfully installed in the laboratory of Professor T. W. Hansch (Nobel Prize in Physics 2005) at MPQ,
Germany, in 2014. He took the lead role in the development of this OPO system, from the early design stage to the
final implementation, completion, and installation of two prototypes at MPQ, which also resulted in a joint
publication with Chaitanya as the main author. Chaitanya’s other important qualities relevant to the Kaminow
Prize are his spirit of teamwork and tireless mentoring younger PhD students and early-career researchers, as well
as outreach activities in support of public understanding of science for school children. Because of his valuable and
effective contributions, he has already served as formal co-supervisor of several Masters and PhD students.
Industrial achievements Since 2017, Chaitanya has held joint appointment as a Laser Scientist at Radiantis, a
spin-off company from my laboratory at ICFO, where he has further demonstrated his exceptional talent in the
challenging task of technology transfer from scientific research to product development in a highly competitive
commercial sector. During his tenure at the company, he has been instrumental in the development of at least 3
state-of-the-art commercial OPO systems in cw, picosecond, and femtosecond time-scales; Titan; Zenith; Mirage.
In summary, I believe the unique scientific and industrial achievements, as well as major contributions to the
career advancement and mentoring of young researchers, make Chaitanya a truly deserving candidate for Ivan
Kaminow Prize. I offer my strongest endorsement to the esteemed committee in support of his application and
wish him success in receiving this prestigious recognition.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. G K Samanta
Photonic Science Lab. 30 November 2019
Physical Research Laboratory gsamanta@prl.res.in
Navrangpura, Ahmedabad-380009, India

To whom it may concern

It gives me immense pleasure to nominate Dr. Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli for the Ivan P.
Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Professional Prize. I have known Chaitanya for over 12
years. Since the early stage of his research career, we worked together on several successful
projects.
Chaitanya initially joined the Optical Parametric Oscillators group at ICFO, Barcelona,
Spain in 2007 for a 4-year PhD program. The main focus of his doctoral thesis was the
development of mid-infrared optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). During his PhD, he made
remarkable contributions to the field of OPOs. Some of the experimental results that he
produced still hold the world record and are highlighted in Nature Photonics and Laser Focus
World. He is intelligent, motivated and self-driven with true passion for research, which
resulted in 18 peer-reviewed international journal publications towards the accomplishment of
his PhD thesis in 2012. Since then, he has taken up various research positions and was involved
in several academic, industrial as well as outreach projects with significant contributions to
more than three European level projects. To date, he has published over 75 well-cited journal
publications (>50 publication in OSA journals) with a current h-index of 20 and total citation
of 1870.
Chaitanya is not only a successful scientist but also a creative teacher. He developed various
hands-on experiments as part of outreach activities and organized externally funded summer
schools for high school students. He was an organizing member of IONS conference in
Barcelona. Chaitanya led several such activities from the front, starting from team building to
conducting regular meetings to testing the hands-on experiments and demonstrating them. He
organized laboratory visits with exciting interactions, for a wide range of visitors. He is always
ready to help and willing to share his knowledge and experience without any reservations. I
have personally witnessed his creativity, persistence, self-discipline and organizational
abilities. I was particularly impressed by his exceptional work ethic. He is a quick learner and
extremely hard working. In 2014, he was invited for a key role in a European level outreach
project, “GoPhoton!” which he took up with great enthusiasm. As a part of this project, he
designed and organized events involving a wide variety of audience including, general public
during the International Year of Light-2015.
Another important aspect of Chaitanya´s career is his exposure to technology transfer with
over 4 years of industrial experience involving, research and development, production and
field-installations. He has been the cornerstone in prototyping as well as design and
development of 3 unique OPOs, which are the flagship commercial products of Radiantis. His
methodical approach to address challenges with innovative solutions has resulted in 4 patents.
He demonstrates strong commitment and adherence to strict deadlines. He has developed
unique industry-specific skills such as remote identification of the problems and quick turn-
around with robust solutions using minimal resources. He is reliable, efficient, soft spoken and
a good listener with a business acumen.
Chaitanya has a great spirit of team work and excellent communication skills. He presented
several papers at international conferences such as CLEO-USA and CLEO-Europe. His
networking skills are elucidated by the collaborative projects that he initiated and successfully
completed, involving internationally renowned groups, including that of a Nobel Laureate,
Prof. T. W. Hänsch at the Max Plank Institute for Quantum Optics, Germany. He has been an
active part of many exciting experiments conducted in my research group at Physical Research
Laboratory, India. I have co-authored more than 20 high-quality journal publications and over
30 international conference papers with Chaitanya. He is also involved in supervising master
and doctoral students. He organized academic as well as outreach conferences, workshops,
networking events and served on technical committees of international conferences, which are
clear examples of his leadership qualities. He mentored several high school, bachelor, master
and doctoral students including some of my students, who greatly admire him for his support,
research insight and dedication. Chaitanya is globally recognized in his research field for his
contributions and was the recipient of ICFO PhD thesis award and UPC extraordinary PhD
thesis award for his outstanding contribution to applied research. He also participated in the
prestigious 66th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting. He played an indispensable role in
establishing the state-of-the-art nonlinear optics laboratory at ICFO since the early stage.
In view of all the above personal and professional qualities with a unique skill set and a
wide range of expertise together with a consistent track record in both academia and industry,
I believe that Chaitanya is truly a leader. Hence, without any hesitation, I nominate Dr.
Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli for the “Ivan P. Kaminow Outstanding Early Career Professional
Prize. He is a true contender of such accolade.

I wish him continuing success in his professional carrier.

Yours sincerely,

(Dr. Goutam K. Samanta)

References

Reference Affiliation Email Member Type

Majid Ebrahim- ICFO -Institut de majid.ebrahim@icf Individual
Zadeh Ciencies o.eu
Fotoniques
Goutam K. Physical Research gsamanta@prl.res Individual
Samanta Laboratory .in