Roberto Morandotti is a Full Professor at INRS-EMT (Université du Québec) and holds the Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Smart Photonics (2016-2030). He earned an M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Genoa in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Glasgow in 1999 under the supervision of J. Stewart Aitchison, followed by postdoctoral positions at the Weizmann Institute of Science with Yaron Silberberg and at the University of Toronto. He has been at INRS since 2003 and has been a Full Professor since 2008.
His research has spanned and helped define four themes. First, discrete wave dynamics and nonlinear optical lattices, where his work on optical Bloch oscillations, discrete solitons and Anderson localization opened directions that remain active today. Then, integrated nonlinear photonics for ultrafast signal processing and optical communications. Next, on-chip quantum frequency combs, which enabled the generation and control of high-dimensional multipartite entangled states on platforms compatible with microelectronics. Finally, synthetic photonic dimensions, optical computing and photonic artificial intelligence.
His distinctions reflect the international impact of his scientific work: the Optica Max Born Award (2026), the IEEE Quantum Electronics Award (2025), the Prix Acfas Urgel-Archambault (2023), the Prix du Québec Marie-Victorin (2022), the NSERC Brockhouse (2020) and Synergy (2019) Awards, and the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2011), among others. He is a Fellow of numerous scientific societies, among them the Royal Society of Canada, the American Physical Society, AAAS, IEEE, Optica and SPIE.
His mentorship has been recognized by INRS and by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies.