Rochester is the one of the beaming optics capitals of the world. Naturally, the students and faculty of the RIT Physics Department engage in various research thrusts that involve the fascinating physical properties of light. These include the use of lasers, holography, telescopes, imaging and detection methods, micro-fabrication techniques, solar energy, numerical computation, optical tweezers, quantum mechanics, and nonlinear optics.

The department has two optical telescopes for viewing the heavens. Our students and faculty interact with optics faculty in the Center for Imaging Science, the Microsystems Engineering Department, and outside institutions such as Sandia National Laboratories, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, University of Rochester, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The department also has active astronomy and astrophysics faculty. Examples of departmental research expertise in optics are listed below. Students interested in working for one of these groups are encouraged to contact the professor.

• Edwin Hach: quantum optics theory, entangled photons.
  
  
• Dawn Hollenbeck: computational optics, nonlinear fiber optics.
  
  
• Seth Hubbard:photo-voltaic power converters, nano-structures, semiconductors.
  
  
• Ronald Jodoin: experimental quantum optics, entangled photons.
  
  
• Michael Kotlarchyk: light scattering by particles and fluctuating media, coherence theory, photon statistics.
  
  
• Grover Swartzlander : optical vortices, exoplanet coronagraphs, optical tweezers, 3D imaging.
  
  
• G Thurston: phase transitions measurements, cataract formation, light scattering, computational modeling.