Professor Venugopal Rao Soma, a distinguished physicist from the University of Hyderabad, has been elected a Fellow Member of Optica (formerly Optical Society of America, USA). This prestigious recognition honors his outstanding contributions to ultrafast spectroscopy and nonlinear optics (NLO) studies, femtosecond ablation, and explosives detection techniques.
https://www.optica.org/about/newsroom/news_releases/2025/optica_announces_2025_fellows_class/
A Leading Figure in Optics and Photonics
Professor Soma is a renowned expert in optics, photonics, and ultrafast spectroscopy. With over three decades of academic and research experience, he has supervised 15 Ph.D. students and mentored over 100 scholars. His impressive research output includes 1 book, 17 chapters, over 460 journal articles and 12,490+ citations (h-index: 61, i-10 index: 252 as per Google Scholar).
International Recognition and Awards
Professor Soma’s achievements have been recognized globally. He is a Fellow of Optica (2025); SPIE (2024); IAAM (2023); NASI (2021); Royal Society of Chemistry (2020) and Institute of Physics, UK (2019).
He has received numerous prestigious awards, including MRSI Medal (2022); Chancellor’s Award (2016) and NASI-SCOPUS award (2012).
Named among the top 2% of scientists in optics and photonics by Stanford University (2020) for four consecutive years, Professor Soma continues to be a leading figure in his field.
Editorial and Conference Contributions
Professor Soma serves as an Associate Editor for several prominent journals, including Optics Letters (Optica), Opto-Electronic Advances (CLP), RSC Advances, and Defence Science Journal. He has delivered over 90 invited talks, 4 plenary talks, and 3 keynote presentations at various national and international conferences.
The University of Hyderabad community congratulates Professor Venugopal Rao Soma on this outstanding achievement, recognizing his dedication to advancing optics and photonics research.