Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of North Carolina Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
Phone: 704-687-8433
FAX: 704-687-4762
lcaspers@uncc.edu
Lee W. Casperson received his B.S. degree in Physics from M.I.T. in 1966 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Caltech in 1967 and 1971 respectively. From 1971 to 1983 he was a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UCLA, and from 1983 to 2004 he was a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Portland State University, where from 1998 he was also a professor in the Department of Physics. Since 2004 he has been Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UNC Charlotte. He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the Optical Society of America (OSA), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and he was awarded the IEEE Centennial Medal. He received the Faculty Excellence Award of the Oregon Legislature and the Portland State University Branford Price Millar Award. He has served on several committees of the National Research Council, the Optical Society of America, and the IEEE. He was Topical Editor for Propagation and Scattering of the Journal of the Optical Society of America and Distinguished Traveling Lecturer of the American Physical Society Division of Laser Science. .
Dr. Casperson's principal research interests concern lasers and optical systems, and he has over 200 research publications with emphasis on laser-related devices, techniques, and phenomena. Long term interests include high gain media, propagation, scattering, waveguides, and resonators. Several studies have involved laser dynamics including the evolution and applications of ultrashort and few-cycle pulsations and the spontaneous instabilities of laser systems. His research includes the experimental discovery and theoretical explanation of the first semiclassical laser instability. Other work has led to new classes of electromagnetic modes and the development of general methods for the analysis of beam propagation. These programs tend to be about equally divided between theory and experiment, and most of them have the active participation of students. Dr. Casperson's interests also extend beyond lasers and optics, and he has written and lectured on several other topics.