Biography

Tobias J. Kippenberg is Full Professor of Physics at EPFL and leads the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurement. He obtained his BA at the RWTH Aachen, and MA and PhD at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech in Pasadena, USA). From 2005- 2009 he lead an Independent Research Group at the MPI of Quantum Optics, and is at EPFL since. His research interest are the Science and Applications of ultra high Q microcavities; in particular with his research group he discovered chip-scale Kerr frequency comb generation (Nature 2007, Science 2011) and observed radiation pressure backaction effects in microresonators that now developed into the field of cavity optomechanics (Science 2008). Tobias Kippenberg is alumni of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”. For his invention of “chip-scale frequency combs” he received he Helmholtz Price for Metrology (2009) and the EFTF Young Investigator Award (2010). For his research on cavity optomechanics, he received the EPS Fresnel Prize (2009). In addition he is recipient of the ICO Prize in Optics (2014), the Swiss National Latsis award (2015), the German Wilhelm Klung Award (2015) and ZEISS Research Award (2018). He is fellow of the APS and OSA, and listed since 2014 in the Thomas Reuters highlycited.com in the domain of Physics.
 
 EDUCATION
 2009: Habilitation (Venia Legendi) in Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München 
 2004: PhD, California Institute of Technology (Advisor Professor Kerry Vahala)
 2000: Master of Science (Applied Physics), California Institute of Technology
 1998: BA in Physics, Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), Germany
 1998: BA in Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), Germany
 
 ACADEMIC POSITIONS
 2013 - present: Full Professor EPFL
 2010 - 2012: Associate Professor EPFL
 2008 - 2010: Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
 2007 - present: Marie Curie Excellent Grant Team Leader, Max Planck Institute of
 Quantum Optics (Division of Prof.T.W. Hänsch)
 2005 - present: Leader of an Independent Junior Research Group, Max Planck Institute
 2005- present: Habilitant (Prof. Hänsch) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU)
 2005-2006: Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for the Physics of Information, California Institute of Technology
 2000-2004: Graduate Research Assistant, California Institute of Technology
 
 PRIZES AND HONORS:
 ZEISS Research Award 2018
 Fellow of the APS 2016
 Klung-Wilhelmy Prize 2015
 Swiss Latsis Prize 2014
 Selected Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in Physics, 2014/2015
 ICO Prize, 2013
 EFTF Young Scientist Award (for "invention of microresonator based frequency combs") 2010
 Fresnel Prize of the European Physical Society (for “contributions to Optomechanics”) 2009
 Helmholtz Prize for Metrology (for invention of the “monolithic frequency comb”) 2009 
 1st Prize winner of the EU Contest for Young Scientists, Helsinki, Finland. Sept. 1996 Jugend forscht
 1st Physics Prize at the German National Science Contest May 1996
 
 FELLOWSHIPS
 Fellow of the German National Merit Foundation ("Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes") 1998-2002 
 Member of the Daimler-Chysler-Fellowship-Organization 1998-2002 Dr. Ulderup Fellowship 1999-2000 
 
 RESEARCH INTERESTS
 Experimental and theoretical research in photonics, notably high Q optical microcavities and their use in cavity quantum optomechanics and frequency metrology
 
 PUBLICATIONS AND OFTEN CITED METRICS*:
 >70 Publications in peer reviewed journals 
 Researcher Google Profile: http://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=PRCbG2kAAAAJ&hl=en 
 h-Index 54 (Google scholar H: 64, >25,000 citations)
 Thomson Reuters/Claravite List of Highly Cited Researchers (2014,2015,2016,2017)
 *careful in its use: https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201411/backpage.cfm*
 
 KEY PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS:
 
 
 A. Ghadimi, et al. 
 Elastic strain engineering for ultra high Q nanomechanical oscillators 
 Science, (2018)
 
 Trocha, et al. 
 Ultrafast distance measurements using soliton microresonator frequency combs
 Science, Vol. 359 (2018)
 [joint work with C. Koos]
 
 Pablo-Marin et al. Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications
 Nature (2017)
 [joint work with C. Koos]
 
 V. Brasch, et al. 
 Photonic chip-based optical frequency comb using soliton Cherenkov radiation.
 Science, vol. 351, num. 6271 (2015)
 
 Aspelmeyer, M., Kippenberg, T. J. & Marquardt, F. Cavity optomechanics. 
 Reviews of Modern Physics 86, 1391-1452, (2014)
 
 Wilson, D. J. et al. Measurement and control of a mechanical oscillator at its thermal decoherence rate. 
 Nature (2014).
 
 Verhagen, E., Deleglise, S., Weis, S., Schliesser, A. & Kippenberg, T. J. Quantum-coherent coupling of a mechanical oscillator to an optical cavity mode.
 Nature 482, 63-67 (2012).
 
 Kippenberg, T. J., Holzwarth, R. & Diddams, S. A. Microresonator-based optical frequency combs.
 Science 332, 555-559, (2011).
 
 Weis, S. et al. Optomechanically induced transparency. 
 Science 330, 1520-1523 (2010).
 
 Kippenberg, T. J. & Vahala, K. J. Cavity optomechanics: back-action at the mesoscale. 
 Science 321, 1172-1176, (2008).
 
 Del'Haye, P. et al. Optical frequency comb generation from a monolithic microresonator. 
 Nature (2007)
 
 Schliesser, A., Del’Haye, P., Nooshi, N., Vahala, K. & Kippenberg, T. Radiation Pressure Cooling of a Micromechanical Oscillator Using Dynamical Backaction. 
 Physical Review Letters 97, (2006).