Philip Russell, Director of the Russell Center at Hangzhou Institute of Optics, Receives 2026 Chinese Government Friendship Award

On September 30, the 2026 China Government Friendship Award ceremony was held at the Great Hall of the People. Philip St.John Russell, academician and director of the Russell Advanced Optical Wave Science Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (hereinafter, the Russell Center of Hangzhou IOFM), received the 2026 China Government Friendship Award.

The China Government Friendship Award is the highest honor established to recognize foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China's modernization and to exchanges between China and other countries. A total of 50 foreign experts received the 2026 China Government Friendship Award.

Philip St.John Russell

(Philip St.John Russell)

Academician Russell is a leading scientist in international fiber optics, known as the "inventor of hollow-core fiber" and the "father of photonic crystal fiber." He currently serves as director of the Russell Center of Hangzhou IOFM, and previously served as president of the Optical Society of America and founding director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Germany. He is also a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Academician Russell has long been engaged in frontier fundamental research, fabrication processes and application technology development for microstructured specialty fibers and hollow-core fibers, advancing new mechanisms, materials and techniques in fiber optics and nonlinear optics. Building on these innovative approaches, he has overcome key bottlenecks in multiple fiber application fields.

As an Irish scientist friendly to China, Academician Russell has consistently worked to connect China with top global scientific and technological resources through Chinese platforms. As a representative of European scientists, he attended the China-Europe Science and Technology Cooperation Conference and led the initiative for the "China-Europe Open Cooperation Initiative on Science and Technology." During his work in China, Academician Russell has repeatedly invited leading European and American scholars in fiber optics to China for academic exchange and joint research, and is also working to establish a China-Brazil international joint laboratory. Through his actions, Academician Russell embodies an international scientist's firm confidence in and deep affection for China's scientific and technological innovation. His story of choosing China, taking root in China and serving China is a vivid chapter in telling China's story and amplifying China's voice.

Since coming to work in China full time, Academician Russell has brought over his core team from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Germany as an established unit and led the founding of the Russell Advanced Optical Wave Science Center, jointly established by the People's Government of Fuyang District, Hangzhou and the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was formally signed and launched in January 2022 under the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics. Fuyang District has provided all-round support in talent services, platform development and industrial incubation. In 2024, Fuyang District issued Academician Russell its first ten-year talent visa, with one-stop processing, providing strong assurance for his long-term, worry-free research in Fuyang. The Russell Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics has established the Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Specialty Optical Fibers with Microstructures. In 2025, the Russell Center accelerated industry-academia-research integration, establishing industrialization entities including Xinkong Guanglian (Hangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd., and signing a strategic cooperation agreement with Fuchunjiang Optoelectronics Group, a leading local optical fiber company, on the industrial application of hollow-core fiber communication devices and systems, promoting the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation. It has also signed strategic cooperation agreements with the cable research institutes of the three major operators, including China Mobile Design Institute, China Unicom Research Institute and China Telecom Research Institute, to move hollow-core fiber technology from the laboratory to production lines and large-scale applications, providing technical support for AI computing centers and next-generation communication networks.

Under Academician Russell's leadership, the Russell Center has built multiple R&D platforms of internationally advanced caliber, including advanced hollow-core fiber fabrication technology, ultrafast nonlinear fiber optics, hollow-core fiber and optical communication technology, mid-infrared ultrafast fiber optics, and multidimensional optical field control systems. Academician Russell has also actively promoted academic exchanges between the Russell Center and top international universities and research institutes, making outstanding contributions to deepening the Center's international cooperation.