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LIA presents 2015 Schawlow Award to EdgeWave founder

The Laser Institute of America, Orlando, Fla., has named Dr. Keming Du, founder of EdgeWave, as the winner of the 2015 Arthur L. Schawlow Award.

The award recognizes the recipient’s longstanding record of laser industry innovation and contributions to basic and applied research in laser science and engineering, leading to fundamental understanding of laser materials interaction and transfer of laser technology for increased application in industry, medicine, and daily life.

Du has more than 70 patents or patent applications and more than 100 published works in a career spanning three decades. He spearheaded development of diode and solid-state lasers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology from 1985 to 2001 and created EdgeWave in 2001 to provide compact diode-pumped, solid-state lasers for various applications.

Du noted that among his chief achievements are advances in:

  • Ultrahigh-power CO2 lasers with powers beyond 30 kW and diffraction-limited beam quality.
  • Beam shaping and fiber coupling of high-power diode lasers, such as step mirrors and optical stacking.
  • Microglass processing via forward ablation.
  • InnoSlab lasers and InnoSlab amplification.
  • Industrialization of short-pulse and ultrashort-pulse lasers based on InnoSlab technology.