2019 Vladilen Letokhov Medal
The 2019 Vladilen Letokhov Medal is awarded to Prof. Dr. Ferenc Krausz, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and Chair for Experimental Physics & Laser Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich. The prize is awarded to Prof. Krausz “for his contribution to the development of high-field laser physics, in particular for pioneering attosecond physics, through which real-time views of electron motion in atoms, molecules, and solids have become possible”.
Ferenc Krausz studied Electrical Engineering and Physics in Budapest, received his PhD and Habilitation in laser physics at the Vienna University of Technology (VUT) in 1991 and 1993, respectively, where he became full professor in 1999. In Vienna, he and his co-workers were able, for the first time, to generate and measure light pulses of attosecond duration. Since 2004, he has been director at MPQ and chair of experimental physics – laser physics – at LMU Munich, in Garching, Germany. He also founded the Centre for Advanced Laser Applications (CALA) in Garching, which he leads as director.
With his seminal advances in few-cycle laser technology, Ferenc Krausz and his team have pioneered the generation and application of ultrashort, intense optical light pulses with a tailored waveform. These permit reproducible generation of isolated attosecond pulses, and – together with them –probing electron motion in atoms, molecules, and solids on their natural, attosecond-femtosecond timescale. Among the exciting applications of his work is the possibility to implement light-wave driven electronics for scaling ultrafast information processing to the petahertz regime. Furthermore, Ferenc Krausz and his team made seminal contributions to the development of high-peak and high-average power ultrafast laser systems with tailored light fields. These enable the generation of well-controlled high-energy photons, electrons and ions for novel applications in cancer medicine. His most recent efforts focus on evaluating the potential of infrared molecular fingerprinting of blood for early cancer detection.
Ferenc Krausz is a highly-cited scientist and has been named as Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate (Thomson Reuters, 2015). He has been awarded numerous honours and is a member of a variety of national and international scientific associations, such as OSA, the German National Academy, Leopoldina, and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
2019 Prize Committee
- Luc Bergé (Chair)
- Joachim Burgdörfer (AMOPD Chair)
- Giulio Cerullo (QEOD Chair)
- Reinhardt Dörner
- Janos Hebling
- Guglielmo Tino
- Victor Zadkov (ISAN/Troitsk)
Background Information on EPS-QEOD
The European Physical Society provides an international forum for physicists and acts as a federation of national physical societies. Founded in 1968, the EPS plays a leading role in both scientific and policy activities within the community of European physicists. The Quantum Electronics and Optics Division (QEOD) of the EPS acts as a focal point for European research in optics and photonics through its wide range of strategic activities, sponsorship and conference organisation. In addition to the major award described above, it also awards Young Researcher (Fresnel) and PhD Student Prizes, which will be announced shortly. See qeod.epsdivisions.org
