Regents professor Girish Agarwal came to OSU in 2004 looking for a place to research quantum optics — the application of quantum mechanics to study how light interacts with matter. Agarwal, a native of India, earned his doctoral degree from the University of Rochester in 1969. The theoretician spent much of his career in India, where he was the director of the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad for 10 years and held the Einstein chair of the Indian National Science Academy. He joined OSU partly because the American university system allows him to continue his research without the constraint of the mandatory retirement age imposed on workers in India. Now, as a Regents professor, he has found a home at OSU and is free to pursue his work while also mentoring graduate students. His research has earned him global acclaim in his discipline. His monograph “quantum optics,” which introduces new theoretical techniques, has been cited more than 600 times. Agarwal’s work is applicable to industries dealing with optical imaging and high image resolutions where breakthroughs in optical sciences can be applied to everything from contact lenses to cameras. His accolades include winning Germany’s Humboldt Research Award, the Max Born prize of the Optical Society of America, the Third World Academy of Sciences Prize in Physics and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize from the Indian government. “I enjoy my research,” he says. “I have collaborators who are spread in various parts of the world — the U.S., Europe and India.” He enjoys teaching and interacting with students, some of whom have gone on to work in the industrial realm, applying their skills for defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. and the U.S. Air Force. Currently, he has four doctoral students at OSU and several he’s working with from other universities, including one from Germany and another from Belgium. “I love to educate and train students,” Agarwal says. Matt Elliott Phil Shockley Enlightening Work Oklahoma State University 19
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