View all Faculty

Frank Wise

Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering

School of Applied and Engineering Physics

Frank Wise
Frank Wise
Graduate Field Affiliations
Applied Physics
Sustainable Energy (minor)

Biography

Frank Wise was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories before coming to Cornell. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1988, and was named an NSF Presidential Young Investigator in 1989. From 2007 to 2011 he was director of the School of Applied and Engineering Physics. Since 2017 he has been director of the Cornell Center for Materials research.

Research Interests

Our main research projects are listed below.

Development of femtosecond-pulse lasers and amplifiers: We are working to develop sources of ultrashort optical pulses that could be used in applications outside of basic research laboratories. Currently we are focused on fiber lasers and amplifiers. Our activities range from theoretical studies of new mechanisms for shaping pulses in lasers to laser engineering and commercial development.

Spatiotemporal aspects of nonlinear optical waves: We study the propagation of ultrashort light pulses in systems that support multiple transverse modes, such as multimode optical fibers.  The evolution is complex and depends on all three spatial dimensions plus time. This work includes investigation of amplifiers and lasers based on spatiotemporal wave propagation.

  • Optical Physics

Select Publications

  • L. G. Wright, D. N. Christodoulides, and F. W. Wise, “Spatiotemporal mode-locking in multimode fiber lasers,” Science 358, 94 (2017).

  • L. G. Wright, P. Sidorenko, H. Pourbeyram, Z. M. Ziegler, A. Isichenko, B. A. Malomed, C. R. Menyuk, D. N. Christodoulides, and F. W. Wise, “Mechanisms of spatiotemporal mode-locking,” Nature Physics16, 565 (2020).

  • H. Pourbeyram, P. Sidorenko, F. Wu, L. Wright, D. Christodoulides, and F. Wise, “Direct observations of thermalization to a Rayleigh-Jeans distribution in multimode optical fiber,” Nature Physics18, 685 (2022).

  • H. Haig, P. Sidorenko, R. E. Thorne, and F. W. Wise, “Megawatt peak power from an all-fiber Mamyshev oscillator,” Optics Letters 47, 762 (2022).

  • L. Wright, F. O. Wu, D. Christodoulides, and F. Wise, “Physics of highly multimode nonlinear optical systems,” Nature Physics August 2022.

Frank W. Wise's Google Scholar

Select Awards and Honors

  • Fellow, Optical Society of America
  • Fellow, American Physical Society
  • Distinguished Traveling Lecturer, Optical Society Of America 2016
  • Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award, Cornell University 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2005
  • NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation 1989

Education

  • B.S., Engineering Physics, Princeton University 1980
  • M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley 1982
  • M.S., Applied Physics, Cornell University 1986
  • Ph.D., Applied Physics, Cornell University 1988

In the News