University of Central Florida
University Trustee Chair, Pegasus Professor, Northrop Grumman Professor, Professor of Optics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Prof. Richardson has a long career in the study of high power lasers and their interaction with matter. His was one of the first experimentalists to create plasmas with ultrafast lasers in the late 1960’s. He is an expert in the interaction of high-power laser light with matter. He has lead major laser-based government research programs at NRC in Canada and for the DoE in Rochester, and has performed research in many laboratories around the world. He joined UCF in 1990, creating the Laser Plasma Laboratory (LPL) a laboratory focused on high power lasers, high-intensity and ultra-short pulse lasers and their interaction with matter. He founded the Townes Laser Institute in 2007. He leads a laboratory of some ~ 30 scientists, engineers and students, organized in teams focusing on advanced laser development and applications. In 2020 he founded a new university research center at UCF, the Center for Directed Energy Systems, Science & Technology, (C-DESST) to consolidate strengthen in research in directed energy in the United States. He has advised ~ 100 Ph.D and MS graduate students, published ~ 500 scientific articles, has 32 patents, has made ~ 200 keynote and invited conference presentations, and has organized many national and international conferences.
Prof. Richardson has received many awards and honors including: 2020, Fellow National Academy of Innovation; 2017 Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair; 2016 Russian Academy of Sciences speaker, 100-year Anniversary Alexandr Prokhorov, 1964, Nobel Physics Laureate co-inventor of the laser; 2005-16 UCF Millionaire’s Club; Fellow, AAAS, (2015); Fellow, Institute of Physics (IoP), London, (2015); 2014 Jefferson Science Fellowship, National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. State Department (2014-2015); RIA Award, UCF, (2014); University Trustee Chair, UCF, (2014), renewal; Fellow, APS, (2013); Fellow, IEEE, (2013); Honorary Degree. Docteur Honoris Causa, University of Bordeaux 2013; Harold E Edgerton Award, (SPIE) (2013); Fellow, (2012); Pegasus Professor Award, UCF (2007); Founding Director, Townes Laser Institute (2007); University Trustee Chair, UCF, (2006); University Researcher of the Year, UCF, (2005); CoP Researcher of the Year (2005); RIA, UCF, (2005); TIA, UCF, (2001); PEP Award, UCF, (1999); IR&D 100 Award, (1995); Fellow, OSA, (1992); Fellow, JSPS (1990); Schardin Medal, German Phys. Soc., (1976).
Talk:
High power lasers and their applications
Abstract
1960 marked the development of the first laser and the beginnings of the photonics era. Since then the laser has evolved from a ‘solution looking for a problem’ to a multi-$100B/year industry introducing new innovative technologies to almost every domain of society. This talk summarizes the advances being made by high power lasers to the defense, manufacturing and soon to be space industries. UCF made many contributions to these areas of laser development and applications that lead to the creation of the Townes Laser Institute in 2006. Recent developments in high power fiber and ultrafast lasers now extend from laboratory studies to defense and security applications in the field at the TISTEF laser range facility on Merritt Island, now part of a new UCF research center, the Center for Directed Energy Systems, Science & Technology, (C-DESST), with wide implications for innovative industrial development in the Central Florida region.