Pablo Artal facts for kids
Pablo Artal (born June 12, 1961, in Zaragoza) is a Spanish physicist and a professor who studies optics at the University of Murcia. Optics is the science of light and how it behaves. Professor Artal is famous for developing new ways to research human vision.
He started and leads the Optics Lab at Murcia University. He has won important awards, including the Spanish National Research award "Juan de la Cierva" and the Rey Jaime I Award for New Technologies in 2015. His main research focuses on how our eyes and the retina (the back part of the eye that senses light) work. He also creates new optical and electronic tools for eye health and vision studies. His discoveries have helped us understand what limits how clearly humans can see. Many of his ideas and inventions are now used in eye clinics to help people.
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Pablo Artal's Life and Work
After earning his master's degree in physics from the University of Zaragoza, Pablo Artal began his PhD studies in 1984. He joined the Institute of Optics, which is part of the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) in Madrid. His PhD supervisor was Javier Santamaria. After finishing his doctorate, he worked as a researcher at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and the Institut d'Optique in Orsay, France.
Becoming a Professor
When he returned to Spain, he became a permanent researcher at the Institute of Optics (CSIC). In 1994, he became the first Full Professor of Optics at the University of Murcia. He also founded the Optics Laboratory there. He is an elected member of several important scientific groups, including the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the European Optical Society (EOS). He is also a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Region of Murcia and the Academy of Medicine. He is a special visiting professor at Central South University in Changsha, China.
Awards and Inventions
In 2013, Pablo Artal received the Edwin H. Land Medal from the OSA. This award recognized his scientific contributions to finding new ways to diagnose and correct vision problems. In 2014, the European Research Council gave him a large grant of 2.5 million euros. This money was used to create special electronic glasses.
In 2015, he won the 'Rey Jaime I' Award for New Technologies. The award noted that he holds more than 20 international patents. A patent is a legal right that protects an invention. He also started five companies that focus on optics. These achievements have "helped to improve the quality of life of people around the world." In May 2016, he announced that he would use 20,000 of the 100,000 euros from the Rey Jaime I award to support ten scholarships. These scholarships help talented undergraduate students studying science at the University of Murcia.
In 2018, Artal won the Juan de la Cierva Spanish National Research Award. He also received the Edgar D. Tillyer Award from the OSA. This award was for his "pioneering use of optics and photonics technologies to understand the human visual system and to improve eye diagnostics and correction." He also received the Gold Medal from the Royal Spanish Society of Physics.
Impact of His Work
Pablo Artal has helped invent 35 patents in the fields of optics and eye care. He also co-founded two companies, Voptica SL and Visiometrics SL. These companies create optical solutions and diagnostic tools. According to Google Scholar, he has published over 400 scientific studies. These studies have been cited (mentioned by other scientists) more than 25,200 times. He has given over 300 invited presentations at international meetings and about 300 seminars at scientific institutions worldwide. In 2017, he edited a two-volume book called "Handbook of Visual Optics."
Some of his inventions are already used in eye clinics. One is the adaptive optics visual simulator (VAO), which you can learn more about at http://voptica.com. Another invention is a new type of intraocular lenses (lenses placed inside the eye) with a special inverted shape. These lenses help improve the quality of vision, especially in the outer parts of what we see.
See also
In Spanish: Pablo Artal Soriano para niños
