Biography

Nikolay Nikonorov, a celebrated researcher in optics and optical materials science, was born on December 18, 1952, in Leningrad. In 1976, he majored in optical and electronic devices from the Leningrad Institute of Mechanics and Optics (now ITMO University). He received his PhD in 1986 and then a DSc in 1997, and became a professor in 2008. 

He began his career at the Vavilov State Optical Institute as a first-year student. For a long period of time, spanning over seven years, he made his way there from an locksmith apprentice up to a laboratory leader.

In 1994, for nine months, he was a visiting scholar at the renowned Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers at the University of Central Florida (the USA).

From 1997 to 2002, Prof. Nikonorov worked at Corning, a world leader in optics, in the USA, where he went from a leading researcher to the head of a unit. 

From joining ITMO University in 1995 till today, he has worked as an associate professor, a professor, the head of the Department of Optoinformatics Technologies and Materials, and a leading professor (currently).

Research

Prof. Nikonorov has played a significant role in establishing and accelerating such branches of optics as integrated optics, gradient-index optics, microoptics, laser optics, optical nanotechnologies and nanomaterials, nonlinear optical magneto-optic, photosensitive, and fluorescent materials, condensed laser media, and polyfunctional optical materials. Amidst numerous other achievements, Prof. Nikonorov founded a novel field of study – optical materials science of gradient waveguides in glass. 

Teaching 

Among Prof. Nikonorov’s courses are waveguide photonics, materials and technologies of integral-index and waveguide optics, materials of laser optoelectronics, and so on. Throughout his career, he supervised 12 PhD and 1 DSc thesis, as well as over 80 graduation papers. 

Publications

Prof. Nikonorov has an h-index of 17. He authored more than 1,000 scientific works, including 382 papers, 623 reports for international and national conferences, 31 patents and copyright certificates for inventions, 1 monograph, 10 chapters in 10 foreign-published books, and 16 teaching and methodological manuals. The results of his studies are published in peer-reviewed international and domestic journals, indexed by Web of Science and Scopus. Prof. Nikonorov frequently participates in international conferences and symposiums.

Awards 

• Diploma and award of the D.S. Rozhdestvensky Optical Society; 

• Diploma and award of S.I. Vavilov;

• Diploma and medal of I.V. Grebenshchikov;

• Diploma and medal of Yu.N. Denisyuk;

• Medal “Honored Inventor of the USSR”;

• Laureate of “International academic editorial company “Science/Interperiodica” Prize for the best publication in the company’s journals in 2014;

• Medal of Outstanding Scientists of the 21st Century by IBC Cambridge, ect.