Clara Saraceno was born in 1983 in Argentina. In 2007, she completed a Diploma in Engineering and an MSc at the Institut d’Optique Graduate School, Paris. She completed a PhD in Physics at ETH Zürich in 2012, receiving the ETH Medal and the European Physical Society Thesis Prize for her work on ultrafast disk lasers. After postdoctoral research at the University of Neuchâtel and ETH Zürich, Clara Saraceno became an Associate Professor at Ruhr University Bochum in 2016, supported by the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award. Since 2020, she has been a Full Professor at the same institution.
Prof. Saraceno is a leading expert in high-power ultrafast lasers and their applications in Terahertz science and technology. Her groundbreaking work on high-power ultrafast lasers and nonlinear conversion into the THz area has significantly impacted laser physics and high-frequency systems.
Clara Saraceno has received countless recognitions, including an ERC Starting Grant (2018), an ERC Proof of Concept Grant (2024), and an ERC Consolidator Grant (2024). The same year, she was honored with the SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Award for high-speed optics and the International Fellowship Award from the Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth. Prof. Saraceno is an active contributor to the optics community and a mentor and supporter for more women in STEM fields. She is a Fellow of Optica in the class of 2022.
