Javier Marmolejo receives Best Thesis Award from Photonics Society

The motivation for the award reads as follows:

“The IEEE Best PhD Thesis Award 2025 has been awarded to Dr. Javier Tello Marmolejo for his thesis on “Optical Levitation and Mie Fano Combs”. The thesis provides a comprehensive and pedagogically structured overview of the field combining a historical perspective and the state of the art before introducing his own contributions. His work expands the applications of optical levitation through six new experiments using a vertical, single-beam trap and a horizontal, 2-beam counter-propagating trap. 

The thesis shows the huge versatility of optical levitation as a research tool in wide areas of physics ranging from optical trapping to attosecond physics. Overall, the thesis demonstrates that Dr. Marmolejo has an in-depth understanding of his field and is able to effectively convey that understanding to people both within and outside his field”. 

The Awards committee also hopes that this thesis can serve as good examples for doctoral students in the early stages of their own thesis writing.