AIP Publishing is pleased to announce Matteo Corti as the recipient of the 2025 APL Photonics Future Luminary Award for his paper, “A thermal infrared hyperspectral camera based on a birefringent interferometer,” published in APL Photonics.

The annual award recognizes an outstanding early-career researcher whose work demonstrates exceptional scientific quality, originality, and future impact in photonics research.

Corti’s award-winning paper presents a novel thermal infrared hyperspectral camera architecture based on a birefringent interferometer, advancing imaging capabilities across the visible and infrared spectral regions.

Ji Eun Bae, a researcher at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a member of APL Photonics Early Career Editorial Advisory Board, noted on behalf of the section committee that “The paper represents a significant advance in thermal infrared hyperspectral imaging. The combination of high spectral resolution, broad mid-infrared spectral coverage, exceptional interferometric contrast, and compatibility with uncooled detectors opens a practical pathway toward lightweight, stable, and deployable hyperspectral systems for remote sensing and environmental monitoring.”

The work highlights the growing potential of hyperspectral imaging technologies for applications ranging from scientific instrumentation to industrial and biomedical analysis. The winning paper is available at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0231702.

“I am extremely honored to receive this prestigious award from APL Photonics,” Corti said. “The recognized work has a strong personal meaning, as it taught me through missteps and hardships what it takes to innovate in photonics. Seeing it appreciated at this level is truly heartwarming. I would like to thank all the people who supported me, starting with Dr. Cristian Manzoni, who mentored me and passed on his contagious passion for this field. I will do my best to deserve this recognition by dedicating my daily efforts to developing photonics technologies that benefit society.”

Corti graduated in Engineering Physics from Politecnico di Milano in 2021, completing a thesis focused on optical design for X-ray instrumentation. He later pursued a Ph.D. in Physics at the same institution, specializing in Fourier-transform hyperspectral imaging across the visible and infrared spectral regions. Following a research fellowship at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Corti joined Cambridge Raman Imaging in 2025 as a Senior R&D Engineer, where he develops coherent Raman microscopy technologies designed for applications beyond research laboratories.

In addition to the $3,000 cash prize, the award includes an invitation to publish an invited article in APL Photonics and an invitation to join the journal’s Early Career Editorial Advisory Board.

APL Photonics publishes cutting-edge research spanning applied photonics, optical materials, quantum photonics, imaging, sensing, and related interdisciplinary fields. The Future Luminary Award highlights emerging researchers whose work is poised to shape the future of the discipline.

About APL Photonics

APL Photonics is an open access journal from AIP Publishing dedicated to publishing impactful and interdisciplinary research across all areas of photonics.

About AIP Publishing

AIP Publishing’s mission is to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity by breaking barriers to open, fair research communication and empowering researchers to accelerate global progress. AIP Publishing is a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and supports the charitable, scientific, and educational purposes of AIP through scholarly publishing activities on its behalf and on behalf of our publishing partners.