Biography

Richard Osgood is Higgins Professor (Emeritus) of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Columbia University. He received his B.S. Degree in Engineering from the US Military Academy at West Point, N. Y., his MS Degree in Physics at Ohio State University, and his PhD in Physics (1972) from MIT (Ali Javan), Cambridge MA.

He carried out research at the Laser Research Branch of the US Air Force [1966-1969], the Quantum Electronics Group at MIT Lincoln Lab [1973-1982], Columbia University [1982-present], and was an Associate Lab Director at Brookhaven National Laboratory [2000-2003] and, in addition, its acting first Nanocenter Director, 2002. He has taught courses in electronics, photonics and quantum electronics, microfabrication, and surface science and diagnostics at Columbia University. He has dedicated much of his professional career to being a close and dedicated mentor to his 67 PhD students and 35 postdocs and research scientists.

His research has covered and focused on many advanced areas of Quantum Electronics and Photonics and their underlying physics, and chemistry underpinning. He is the inventor of many new lasers and many microsystem processing of fabrication methods; he has also investigated the fundamental inversion mechanisms which make these lasers unique and important. His research on Integrated Optical Devices and Science has focused on the development of the next-generation optical devices, their applications, and their physics.

He has published extensively on his research in wide range of journals and at the current time he has a total of approximately 500 journal papers. This work includes publication of a book on Laser Chemical Processing for Microelectronics and a second in the final stages of preparation on Integrated Optics. In addition, he has numerous chapters in research monographs.

His research has also led to many new commercial ventures including High Power CO lasers for spectroscopy and for tunable infrared pump laser sources. His pioneering, major work in laser– chemical processing for microelectronics has been the basis for many commercial enterprises including Si interconnect repair; research in oxide thin film ion slicing, and direct polymeric layers for commercial photonic devices and circuits.

He has been an organizer and chair of many optics and laser based professional symposia and associate editor of the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics (1981-88). In 1991, Dr. Osgood received the R. W. Wood Award from the Optical Society of America and in 2015 he received the Quantum Electronics Award from the IEEE. He was also invited to deliver the plenary OIDTA lecture at the Japanese Optical Association. He also delivered plenary talks at CLEO and other major meetings. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, OSA, and the APS. He has also been named a Travelling Lecturer of both the OSA and the APS.

He has also served as an advisor to major national research institutions and government agencies including the DARPA Defense Sciences Research Council and its governing board, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Visiting Advisory Board (Laser/Chemical Sciences and Technology Division), and the Brookhaven National Laboratory Science Committee (Vice Chair). Professor Osgood has also served as councilor of the Materials Research Society, as a member of the DOE Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, and Chaired the Visiting Committee for the entire US Basic Energy Science User Facilities (multiple $Billions) (including Synchrotrons, Nuclear Reactor and Spallation Neutron Sources, Electron Microscopes) in 2007.