An Interview with the 2022 Schawlow Winner: Dr. Bo Gu

from LIA Today - ICALEO Edition 2022

ANNUAL ARTHUR L. SCHAWLOW AWARD

Congratulations on being the 2022 recipient of the prestigious Arthur L. Schawlow Award. What does receiving this award mean to you?

BG: First of all, I would like to thank LIA for this prestigious award. It is a lofty honor for me. It is not only an affirmation of my 40 year long professional career in lasers, but also a representation of the development of laser technology and its applications.

Has Arthur Schawlow had any personal impact on your work? Are there any other big laser names you would like to recognize?

BG: I studied the history of lasers when I was in college. Professor Arthur Schawlow and his borther-in-law Prof. Charles Townes were my mentors. Their research path towards masers and lasers was a great adventure which I am in the process of writing about it. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to invite Prof. Townes to Photonics West LASE plenary session in 2007. When he visited the exhibition halls of the Photonics West after his speech, he told us that he would never imagine what lasers can do today. Another big name in lasers is of course Dr. Theodore Maiman. Schawlow and Townes discovered Maser and proposed the path towards Laser, Maiman was the first one to make it happened. They are all my mentors and heroes.

The Schawlow award recognizes career-long contributions to basic and applied research in laser science and engineering. With numerous achievements, from teaching, and being a committee member and author, to being a driving force behind industry advancement in international countries, which contributions to the industry would you say you are most proud of?

BG: First of all, I would like to point out that all my achievements would not be possible without my advisors, colleagues, and professional peers. Any scientific and technological advancement can not be made by oneself alone—it is a team work. If I have to choose the most significant ones among all my contributions, I would pick two: laser micro machining , especially its applications in microelectronics; and fiber laser development and applications and associated commercial success. Both have an estimated societal and economical impact of several thousand billon US dollars. We have made laser technology a true enabler.

You sent in a rather inspiring presentation for the ICALEO 2022 Awards Ceremony that shared some lessons you have learned throughout your career. What inspired you to go that route with the presentation?

BG: When I learned that I was given this prestigious award, I immediately thought about all my teachers, professors, mentors, colleagues and peers who gave me the courage, inspiration, love, guidance and help along the way of my four decades long career. I could not think of anything better that giving back to this great community, especially to young generations because they are the future of our industry. So I decided to share some of my lessons with the audience hoping that they would get something useful from it. I would be very happy if one person was impacted by my talk.

How else do you hope or anticipate your receiving this award will influence others?

BG: I would hope people can see the history of laser material processing through my personal story and would like to encourage young people to participating in this very exciting field—the next decade will be the golden decade for lasers and photonics!

What has been one of the greatest challenges you have overcome in the advanced development of this industry?

BG: The biggest challenge has always been to make the lasers as an industrial tool because no matter how advanced your lasers are, they would not be able to impact our industry unless they are accepted by the industry and widely used in the industry.

What advancements do you think we will see in the fields of micro- and nano-engineering in the upcoming years?

BG: There are several hot areas in the micro- and nano-engineering fields: additive manufacturing at microand nano-level; laser direct writing at nano-scales; medical and biomedical applications using micro- and nano-engineering, to name just a few.

Do you have any additional thoughts that you would like to share?

BG: Through my winning of this renowned award that bears the name of a great laser physicist and a Nobel laureate , I hope the laser technology can be promoted to a higher level by combining it with some of the emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and quantum technology, and to be applied to a wider range of fields for the benefit of mankind.

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