Ursula Keller elected member of the National Academy of Sciences
- D-PHYS
- Institute for Quantum Electronics (IQE)
The National Academy of Sciences (USA) has announced the election of 30 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in research, among them ETH physicist Ursula Keller.
With her election, Ursula Keller has entered a distinguished circle of scientists whose significant contributions to science have been recognised by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS). She joins T. Maurice Rice (1993), Gabriel Aeppli (2015), and Jürg Fröhlich (2020) as the fourth Department of Physics professor who is currently an active member of the NAS. Of the 120 newly elected members this year, 59 are women, the largest proportion of female researchers admitted in a single year in the institution’s 158-year history.
Professor Keller became a Full Professor of Quantum Electronics at ETH Zurich in 1997 after being appointed Associate Professor in 1993. She studied Physics at ETH Zürich (Diploma 1984) and earned her MS (1987) and PhD (1989) degrees in Applied Physics at Stanford University. Before her appointment to the Physics Department at ETH Zurich, she worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey, where she conducted research on photonic switching, ultrafast laser systems, and semiconductor spectroscopy.
Ursula Keller’s main research interests include ultrafast science and technology. She invented the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) which enabled passive modelocking of diode-pumped solid-state lasers and established ultrafast solid-state lasers for science and industrial applications und pioneered numerous other ultrafast laser applications. Her frequency comb stabilisation from modelocked lasers was also noted by the Nobel committee for Physics in 2005. Several of her inventions were commercialised through successful start-ups.
Professor Keller is the recipient of numerous Awards, including the Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Prize (2020), SPIE Gold Medal (2020), IEEE Edison Medal (2019), European Inventor Award for lifetime achievement (2018), IEEE Photonics Award (2018), OSA Charles H. Townes Award (2015), LIA Arthur L. Schawlow Award (2013), EPS Senior Prize (2011), OSA Fraunhofer/Burley Prize (2008), Leibinger Innovation Prize (2004), Zeiss Research Award (1998) and numerous ERC grants. She is an OSA, SPIE, IEEE, EPS and IAPLE Fellow, and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Academy Leopoldina, and Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences and holds an honorary Honorary Doctor of Science from Heriot-Watt University, Scotland. Ursula Keller is also the founding president of the external page ETH Women Professors Forum.
The National Academy of Sciences
The external page National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognises achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine — provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the US government and other organisations.