Kathleen Ann Cerqua-Richardson is an American physicist and the Pegasus Professor of Optics & Photonics, Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Central Florida.
[1] As a child she took part in a boy scouts explorer club in optics that met every week at Kodak Park.
[2] After earning her bachelor's degree in 1982 she joined the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics where she spent four years as an optical engineer.
[1] When Richardson realised that the Naval Air Defence Laboratory did not have the facilities to support her research work, she moved to the University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics.
[7] The citation for her SPIE Maria J. Yzuel Outstanding Educator Award read, “It is important to note that education has been an integral part of Kathleen Richardson's professional career from the beginning, starting with her own PhD time ... She started lecturing at Alfred University immediately after finishing her master's degree and, soon after that, began teaching her short course series for SPIE and other international meetings and summer schools ...