Edoardo Charbon elected to Optica
STI professor Edoardo Charbon. 2025 EPFL CC BY SA
Edoardo Charbon, head of the Advanced Quantum Architecture Lab (AQUA) in the School of Engineering, has been elected Fellow of the optics and photonics society Optica for his work on single photon avalanche diode cameras and sensors.
On November 25th, the board of directors of Optica announced the election of 121 members to its 2026 Fellow Class, including School of Engineering professor Edoardo Charbon, who was selected "For groundbreaking and pioneering contributions in the development of single photon avalanche diode cameras and sensors."
Optica Fellows are selected based on outstanding contributions to research, business, education, engineering, and service to Optica and the community. “These members exemplify Optica’s core values through their innovative and impactful work, which is advancing the science of light," said 2025 Optica President Jim Kafka.
Fellows are Optica members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics. As Fellows can account for no more than 10 percent of the total membership, the election process is highly competitive. Candidates are recommended by the Fellow Members Committee and approved by the Awards Council and Board of Directors. The new Fellows will be honored at Optica conferences and events throughout 2026.
As head of the AQUA Lab, Edoardo Charbon's research focuses on the development of hardware and software systems based on quantum devices. He received the Elektrotechnik Diploma from ETH Zurich (1988), an MS from the University of California at San Diego (1991), and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley (1995), all in electrical engineering and computer sciences. He has been a member of the faculty of EPFL since 2002 and a full professor since 2015. His interests span 3D vision, LiDAR, time-resolved Raman spectroscopy, and cryo-CMOS circuits and systems for quantum computing. He has authored or co-authored over 500 papers and two books, and he holds 30 patents. Professor Charbon is the recipient of the 2023 IISS Pioneering Achievement Award, a distinguished visiting scholar of the W. M. Keck Institute for Space at Caltech, a fellow of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Photonics Society, and a fellow of the IEEE.