Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Photonics 2023 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Michele Cotrufo.

Dr. Michele Cotrufo is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, USA.

He received a BS and MS degree in physics from the University of Bari, Italy (2010), and the University of Padova, Italy (2012), respectively. He then joined the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) as a doctoral student, where he investigated novel light–matter interactions in nanophotonics and hybrid optomechanical systems. After graduating in 2017, he performed postdoctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin and at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (New York City), and he joined the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester in 2023 as an assistant professor. His research focuses on the investigation of metamaterials—artificially structured materials that manifest optical properties not available in bulk materials—for a broad range of applications in classical and quantum optics. This is an outstanding achievement in today’s competitive environment. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Michele Cotrufo on his outstanding achievements.

As the awardee, Dr. Michele Cotrufo will receive an honorarium of CHF 1000, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before the end of 2024 in Photonics after peer-review, and an electronic certificate.

We would like to thank all the nominators from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee Members for their evaluation of the many excellent nominations.

Photonics 2023 Young Investigator Evaluation Committee