EPS-QEOD (Quantum Electronics and Optics Division) Prizes
A series of prestigious EPS-QEOD Prizes and Awards distributed in uneven years will be presented in a special Plenary and Awards Ceremony during CLEO®/Europe-EQEC 2021 to take place on Tuesday morning, June 22nd, 2021 from 10:30 to 12:30, Room 1.
2019 Archives:
↓Download the 2019 EPS-QEOD Prizes booklet
↓Download the 2019 EPS-QEOD Quantum Electronics Prizes – Press release
The EPS-QEOD Quantum Electronics and Optics Prizes:
Among its most prestigious prizes, the Quantum Electronics and Optics division (QEOD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) distributes the Quantum Electronics and Optics Prizes. These are the two senior EPS/QEOD prizes (one for fundamental, one for applied aspects) awarded for outstanding contributions to quantum electronics and optics. These Prizes, awarded in uneven years, recognize the highest level of achievements in fundamental and applied research in optical physics.
The Quantum Electronics and Optics division (QEOD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) is delighted to announce the 2019 winners of its two most prestigious prizes in Quantum Electronics and Optics.
〉2019 EPS-QEOD Quantum Electronics Prize for applied aspects
The 2019 Prize for applied aspects of quantum electronics and optics is awarded to Govind P. Agrawal, University of Rochester, USA
For pioneering and groundbreaking research that underpins a wide range of current photonic technologies in the fields of semiconductor lasers, nonlinear fiber optics and optical communication systems.
Govind P. Agrawal is an expert on nonlinear optics, silicon photonics, and optical communications. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1971 and 1974 respectively. After holding positions at the Ecole Polytechnique, France, the City University of New York, and AT&T Bell Laboratories, Agrawal joined in 1989 the faculty of the Institute of Optics at University of Rochester, where he is currently James C. Wyant Professor of Optics. He is an author or coauthor of more than 450 research papers, and eight books. His books on Nonlinear Fiber Optics (Academic Press, 6th ed., 2019) and Fiber-Optic Communication Systems (Wiley, 4th ed., 2010) are used worldwide for research and teaching. Since January 2014, Agrawal serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the OSA journal Advances in Optics and Photonics.
Agrawal is a Fellow of IEEE and OSA (The Optical Society) and a Life Fellow of the Optical Society of India. He is also a member of the European Physical Society. In 2012, IEEE Photonics Society honoured him with its Quantum Electronics Award. He received in 2013 Riker University Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. Agrawal was given the Esther Hoffman Beller Medal in 2015. He is also the recipient of the 2019 Max Born Award of OSA.
〉EPS-QEOD Quantum Electronics Prize for fundamental aspects
The 2019 Prize for fundamental aspects of quantum electronics and optics is awarded to Anne L'Huillier, Lund University, Sweden
In recognition of her pioneering experimental and theoretical contributions to attosecond pulse trains using high harmonics, which form the basis of today's successful field of attosecond science.
Anne L'Huillier is a Swedish/French researcher in attosecond science. She was born in Paris in 1958, studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in mathematics and physics and defended her doctorat d'état ès Sciences Physiques de l'Université Paris VI, in 1986. She was then permanently employed as researcher at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, in Saclay, France until 1995. She was postdoctoral researcher at Chalmers Institute of Technology, Gothenburg (1986), University of Southern California (1988), and visiting scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1993). In 1995, she moved to Lund University, Sweden and became full professor in 1997. She was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2004.
Her research which includes both theory and experiment, deals with the interaction between atoms and intense laser light, and in particular the generation of high-order harmonics of the laser light, which, in the time domain, consist of trains of attosecond pulses. Currently, her research group works on attosecond source development and optimization as well as on applications, for example, concerning the measurement of photoionization dynamics in atomic systems.
The EPS-QEOD Fresnel Prizes:
Two EPS/QEOD Fresnel Prizes are awarded for outstanding contributions to quantum electronics and optics made by young scientists before the age of 35 (as of December 31st, 2021). There is one prize for fundamental aspects and one prize for applied aspects.
〉2019 EPS-QEOD Fresnel Prize for applied aspects
The 2019 Fresnel Prize for applied aspects is awarded to Matteo Lucchini, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
For outstanding contributions in the field of attosecond science. In particular for seminal contribution in the investigation of attosecond electron dynamics in solid state materials.
Matteo Lucchini graduated from the Politecnico di Milano in 2009 and obtained a PhD in Physics at the same institute in 2012 with a thesis on the development of new techniques for the generation of single attosecond pulses and their application to molecular dynamics. He then joined the Physics Department at ETH Zurich where he was awarded an ETH Zurich postdoctoral fellowship and started to investigate attosecond dynamics in solids with photo-emission and photo-absorption spectroscopy. At present he is Assistant Professor at the Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano where he is in charge of the scientific activities in the Attosecond Science Laboratories. His research interests include the study of sub-femtosecond electron dynamics in atoms, molecules and solids.
〉2019 EPS-QEOD Fresnel Prize for fundamental aspects
The 2019 Fresnel Prize for fundamental aspects is awarded to Carlos Hernández-García, University of Salamanca, Spain
For pioneering contributions to the theory of high harmonic generation, uncovering new regimes of attosecond and zeptosecond waveforms and designer beams with orbital and spin angular momentum.
Carlos Hernández-García is Senior Researcher (Ramón y Cajal fellow) in the Research Group in Photonics and Laser Applications (ALF-USAL) at University of Salamanca (Spain). He received his PhD in Physics in 2013 at the University of Salamanca (Spain). He was a Marie Curie postdoc fellow, and worked for two years as Research Associate at JILA, University of Colorado at Boulder (USA). His main research line is the development of theoretical models to understand and propose the generation of structured ultrafast laser pulses with designed angular momentum (both spin and orbital) properties, conveying strong field physics, attosecond science and high harmonic generation.
He has published >40 peer-review articles, including several publications in Science, Nature Photonics or Phys. Rev. Lett. journals.
The EPS-QEOD Thesis Prizes:
Since 2007 up to four EPS/QEOD Thesis Prizes are awarded to reward excellence in PhD research and scientific communication in the area of quantum electronics and optics related to a PhD thesis work defended in the period June 2017 – June 2019 (in the two years prior to the conference). These Prizes are awarded for fundamental and applied aspects. The prize winners are each to receive a diploma and 1000 euros.
〉2019 EPS-QEOD Thesis Prizes for applied aspects
The 2019 QEOD Thesis Prize for applied aspects is awarded to Armin Feist, University of Göttingen, Germany
For Next-Generation Ultrafast Transmission Electron Microscopy – Development and Applications.
Armin Feist is a postdoctoral research associate in the group of Claus Ropers at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Here, he received his Ph.D. in June 2018, working on the development and application of ultrafast transmission electron microscopy (UTEM) using coherent electron pulses. He studied physics in Leipzig, Leeds and Göttingen, and his B.Sc. and M.Sc. theses focused on angle-resolved fluorescence in photonic crystals and laser-triggered field ion microscopy, respectively. In his current research activities, he explores new fundamental and instrumental capabilities in UTEM, including the study of ultrafast nanoscale dynamics and the coherent optical tailoring of free-electron beams.
The 2019 QEOD Thesis Prize for applied aspects is awarded to Mathieu Massicotte, University of Sherbrooke, Canada
For Ultrafast optoelectronics in 2D materials and their heterostructures.
Mathieu Massicotte is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institut Quantique of the University of Sherbrooke in Canada. His research interests lie at the intersection of experimental condensed matter physics and photonics, with a focus on optoelectronic nanodevices based on novel 2D materials. He completed his PhD in Photonics in 2017 at ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, Spain. He previously obtained his bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics from Polytechnique Montreal and his master's degree in Physics from McGill University.
〉2019 EPS-QEOD Thesis Prizes for fundamental aspects
The 2019 QEOD Thesis Prize for fundamental aspects is awarded to Ileana-Cristina Benea-Chelmus, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
For Terahertz quantum optics with ultra-short pulses.
Ileana-Cristina Benea-Chelmus received her Doctor of Sciences in Physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland in 2018. She worked in the area of terahertz science and technology and performed the first direct measurements on quantum states of light in this frequency range. On a parallel line, she developed ultrasensitive detectors that exploit miniaturization. She is currently a postdoctoral associate and a research fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation at Harvard University. Here, she develops on-chip optical devices for the manipulation of light and its use in fundamental sciences and industry. She is involved in mentoring work and outreach activities at the faculty and university level.
The 2019 QEOD Thesis Prize for fundamental aspects is awarded to Fabian Langer, Lund University, Sweden
For Lightwave-driven quasiparticle acceleration.
Fabian Langer was born on the 17th of March 1990 in Bamberg, Germany. He studied physics in the joint elite study program "Physics Advanced" of the Universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Regensburg (Germany). While completing his Bachelor's thesis in low-temperature physics and superconductivity at the chair of Paul Müller in Erlangen, he went on to Regensburg to work on his Master's and PhD in the group of Rupert Huber. Here, he learned about ultrafast quantum physics of condensed matter systems and started to work on lightwave electronics. Fabian Langer received his PhD in March 2018. Since June 2018, he is a post-doctoral fellow at Lund University, Sweden, jointly in the groups of Anne L'Huillier and Anders Mikkelsen.
The EPS-QEOD Travel Grant Student Awards
The EPS-QEOD Board together with the EPS Young Minds are happy to announce the laureates of the EPS-QEOD Travel Grant Student Awards to attend CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2019:
Emil Vosmar Denning, DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
Vinícius C. Ferreira, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Xin Jin, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique – Energie, Matériaux et Télécommunications (INRS-EMT), Varennes, Canada
Aleksandrs Leitis, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
Ziqi Li, School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, China
Paulius Mackonis, Solid State Laser laboratory, Department of Laser Technologies, Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Vilnius, Lithuania
Ahmed Othman, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
Dmitrii Pushkarev, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Jérémy Raskop, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB), Paris, France
Varun Sharma, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India
Join EPS-QEOD
Information about membership of the EPS is available here. Please note that many members of national physical societies can join EPS for a very moderate supplement, representing excellent value for money. EPS membership provides tremendous value for money with access to a wide range of resources, conference discounts and networking opportunities within the European optics community.