Welcome to the Glass Age

211 Prof. Giancarlo C. Righini Giancarlo C. Righini is now a senior associate at the Nello Carrara Institute of Applied Physics (IFAC) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). Doctor in Physics at the University of Florence, he worked more than 40 years at CNR in Florence and Rome. Among various duties, he was Director of CNR National Group of Quantum Electronics, Research Director at IFAC, Director of CNR Department of Materials and Devices. After retiring from CNR, he was Director of the Enrico Fermi Center in Rome (2012- 2016). He has always done experimental research, first in optical holography and signal processing, and then in fiber and integrated optics, with particular attention to glass and glass-ceramic materials. His publications record counts almost 600 articles, half of them in prestigious international journals; his name was included in the 2020 list of world’s top 2% scientists in their main discipline, published by PLOS Biology. He was co-founder and then President of the Italian Society of Optics and Photonics (SIOF), Vice-President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), Vice-President of the International Commission of Optics (ICO) and Secretary of the European Optical Society (EOS). He was Chair of the Technical Committee TC20 (Photonic glasses and optical fibers) of ICG (2012-2021). He is Fellow of SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics; 2003), SIOF (2003), EOS (2006), Optica (formerly OSA, The Optical Society; 2010), and Meritorious Member of SIF (Italian Physical Society; 2016).