Professor Ronny Agranat is the chairman of the department of Applied Physics and the incumbent of the Nahman Jaller chair of Applied Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Agranat holds a B.Sc degree in physics and mathematics (1977), an M.Sc degree in Applied Physics (1980), and a PhD degree in physics (1986) all from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His Ph.D thesis was on the subject of the dielectric mechanism of the photorefractive effect which he discovered together with his Ph.D advisor Professor Y. Yacoby. From 1986 to 1997 he was a senior research fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he worked on the development of microelectronic artificial neural networks based on charge transfer devices which he invented, and the growth and investigation of paraelectric photorefractive crystals. In 1991 he joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and founded the optoelectronic computing laboratory. The laboratory mission is to conceive and develop optoelectronic devices and systems that will expand the capabilities of the computing and communication technologies that are the physical basis of the cyberspace. One of the main themes pursued by Agranat is to exploit the special features of the quadratic electrooptic effect at the paraelectric phase for the purpose of constructing various optoelectronic device, in particular for wavelength selective switching applications. To that end Agranat invented and developed a new electrooptic crystal: potassium lithium tantalate niobate (KLTN). Agranat is the inventor of Electroholography which is a generic optical switching method based on governing the reconstruction process of volume holograms by the applications of electric fields. Electroholography was invented for the purpose of interconnecting electronic processors by holographic devices. In particular it has been identified as the leading concept for dynamic wavelength selective routing in WDM optical fiber communication networks. For the invention of Electroholography and the KLTN crystal Agranat was awarded the Discover Innovation Award (awarded by the Discover magazine and the Christopher Columbus Society) for the leading invention in the area of communication for the year 2001. Agranat is a member of the Hebrew University Interdisciplinary Center of Neuro-Computing, an associate editor of the international journal “Fiber and Integrated Optics”, and a fellow of the Optical Society of America. Agranat was also a cofounder and director of Trellis–Photonics that was founded for exploiting Electroholography in telecommunication applications. He has recently founded with a team of his former students a new start-up company: NAMAL-technologies which develops applications for the thermal imaging market. Agranat is the author of many scientific papers, and holds 18 patents in the areas of microelectronics, optoelectronics and materials science.