Henry C. Kapteyn (born 1963) is an American physicist and professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a Fellow of JILA, a joint institute of the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Kapteyn is known for his work in ultrafast optical science, particularly the development of femtosecond lasers and tabletop coherent X-ray sources. His research focuses on ultrafast laser technology, dynamics in molecular and materials systems, and coherent X-ray generation. He is the co-founder of KMLabs, a company specializing in ultrafast laser systems.
Kapteyn was born in 1963 in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, to parents who were post-World War II immigrants from the Netherlands.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1982, followed by a Master of Science from Princeton University in 1984. He completed his Ph.D. in physics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1989, where he began working with lasers.
After his Ph.D., Kapteyn held faculty positions at Washington State University (1990âÂÂ1996) and the University of Michigan (1996âÂÂ1999) before joining the University of Colorado Boulder in 1999 as a Professor of Physics and a Fellow of JILA.
In 1994, he co-founded KMLabs with his wife and collaborator, Margaret Murnane. The company commercializes ultrafast laser technologies developed in their research and has received investment from Intel Capital.
Kapteyn has collaborated extensively with Murnane on studies in femtosecond lasers and X-ray generation.
Kapteyn's research involves developing tabletop-scale laser technology for coherent X-rays, ultrafast dynamics in molecular and materials systems, and high-harmonic generation. Contributions include techniques for generating coherent X-rays using femtosecond lasers, enabling studies at short length and time scales.
Kapteyn is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Optica, and American Association for the Advancement of Science.