VS

Venugopal Rao Soma

Also known as: S. Venugopal Rao, S.V.Rao, V.R.Soma, Venugopal Rao Soma

University of Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

ORCID iD 0000-0001-5361-7256
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About

Prof. Venugopal Rao Soma has more than THIRTY plus (30+) years of research experience in experimental ultrafast nonlinear optics, photonics, spectroscopy, and hazardous materials sensing. He obtained his master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Hyderabad, India, in 1994 and 2000, respectively. His thesis dealt with incoherent laser spectroscopy for measuring ultrafast relaxation times and third-order nonlinearities in various organic molecules, including C60, porphyrins, and phthalocyanines. He spent nearly three years as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Majid Ebrahim-Zadeh at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he studied semiconductor nonlinear optics and looked into semiconductor heterostructures for changing frequencies using different phase-matching methods with very short laser pulses. From July 2003 until December 2004, he was associated with the Centre for Ion Beam Applications group headed by Prof. Frank Watt as a research fellow in the National University of Singapore physics department. His interests at NUS involved proton beam writing and its applications for polymer photonics. From December 2004 to May 2007, he was associated with the physics department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, as an assistant professor, focusing on developing a nonlinear optics and photonics laboratory. Since June 2007, he has been associated with the Advanced Centre of Research on High Energy Materials (ACRHEM) at the University of Hyderabad, working towards understanding the interaction of nanosecond, picosecond, and femtosecond laser pulses with high-energy materials using various spectroscopic techniques such as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, pump-probe studies, ultrafast ablation, and femtosecond laser direct writing. He is now serving as a SENIOR PROFESSOR at the university.

He has published >500 papers in refereed international journals/conference proceedings and presented >150 papers in various international/national conferences. He has given >100 INVITED and >8 PLENARY/KEYNOTE talks at various national/international conferences/meetings. His papers have >15000 citations (GOOGLE SCHOLAR) with an 'h-index' of 65.

He has been identified as one of the top 2% of scientists worldwide in optoelectronics & photonics by a Stanford study from 2019 to 2026. He received the MRSI medal for 2022 from the Materials Research Society of India. He is elected as the (i) FELLOW of Optica (formerly Optical Society of America), USA; (ii) FELLOW of SPIE, USA; (iii) FELLOW of the National Academy of Sciences (NASI), India; (iv) FELLOW of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), UK (2020); (v) FELLOW of the Institute of Physics (IoP), UK (2019); (vi) Fellow of IAAM, Sweden; and (vii) FELLOW of the Telangana Academy of Sciences, Telangana, India, for the year 2018. He received the Chancellor's Award from the University of Hyderabad in 2016. He also received the NASI-SCOPUS award for 2012 in the physics category. He has also been elected as a SENIOR MEMBER of OSA, SPIE, and IEEE. He served/is serving as (a) topical editor of Optics Letters (Optica), (b) associate editor of Opto-Electronic Advances, and (c) associate editor of RSC Advances. He is a member of the editorial board of the Defence Science Journal (India). He is now an associate editor for Frontiers (Optics & Photonics).

Employment

  • University of Hyderabad Senior Professor
    2023 - Present
  • University of Hyderabad Professor
    2013 - 2023
  • University of Hyderabad Associate Professor
    2010 - 2013
  • University of Hyderabad Reader
    2007 - 2010
  • Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati Assistant Professor
    2004 - 2007

Education

  • University of Hyderabad PhD
    1994 - 2000
  • University of Hyderabad MSc
    1992 - 1994

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (664)