About Tobias Kippenberg

One of the world’s most influential experimental physicists, Tobias Kippenberg has made paradigm-shifting discoveries. He showed that microresonators — tiny glass-like rings that trap light — can generate optical frequency combs from a single laser on a tiny chip, overturning the assumption that such precision tools require large laboratory setups. These combs are essential in telecommunications and chemical sensing. He also found that light circulating in a microresonator exerts radiation pressure on its walls, coupling light to mechanical vibrations. This opened the field of cavity optomechanics and new paths in quantum technologies and ultrasensitive sensing.

Kippenberg studied physics and electrical engineering at RWTH Aachen and earned a PhD in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology in 2004. After leading a junior research group at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, he joined EPFL in 2008 and has been full professor in the Institute of Physics and Electrical Engineering since 2013.

Tobias Kippenberg lecture | The Quest for Ultralow Dissipation