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Professor Chester Shu, Professor and Chair of the Department of Electronic Engineering of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has been elected a Fellow of 2022 by Optica, a prestigious international society in the field of optics, in recognition of his seminal contributions to effective control and processing of optical signals in communications. This year, 106 members from 24 countries/districts have been elected to the Fellow Class for their distinguished contributions to education, research, engineering, business and serving the community. The number elected each year is limited to approximately 0.5% of the current membership.

Professor Shu remarked, “I am greatly honoured to be elected an Optica Fellow in appreciation of our research on optical communications performed at CUHK. Our achievement would not have been possible without the tremendous support from the University, the concerted effort in creating a collaborative research environment, and the strong dedication of our team members to photonics research. We are indebted to visionary founders of the field, namely the late Professor Charles Kao, former Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK who brought light to the path that we now tread and venture forth.”

In today’s communications, massive information is carried by optical waves that are transmitted at the speed of light. The processing of optical signals with the conventional approach is however limited by the high power consumption and large latency. These challenges can be addressed by controlling and processing the signals in the optical domain. It is envisaged that with the integration of optical and electronic technologies, unprecedented performance can be achieved by fully utilising the available bandwidth, power and other resources in an optical communication system, while offering transparency, tunability, and reconfigurability in processing the signals.

Professor Shu joined CUHK in 1992 and his major research interest is in multi-dimensional processing of light waves for advanced communication systems. His research group has made notable contributions in decoupling the amplitude and phase responses of optical signals, breaking a major constraint that hinders wider applications of the processing approaches. Professor Shu is a subject editor-in-chief of IET Electronics Letters and a senior editor of IEEE Photonics Journal, both in the realm of optical communications.

Optica, formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA), is a world leading champion for optics and photonics established in 1916. It aims to advance optics and photonics worldwide, and deliver high-quality scientific and technical information that is authoritative, accessible and archived. Optica unites and serves 432,000 scientists, engineers, educators, technicians and business leaders worldwide from 181 countries/districts.

List of 2022 Fellow of Optica