The EPS Quantum Electronics Prize

Year 2011

2011 Prize for Applied Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics: Ursula Keller

The 2011 Prize for Applied Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics is awarded to Professor Ursula Keller, Professor in the Physics Department, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The Prize is awarded to Professor Keller for “seminal contributions to ultrafast solid-state lasers, telecommunications, metrology, and attosecond science”.

2011 Prize for Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics: Immanuel Bloch

The 2011 Prize for Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics is awarded to Professor Immanuel Bloch, scientific director at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching and professor for experimental physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany. The prize is awarded to Professor Bloch for “pioneering work on exploring quantum many-body systems using ultracold quantum gases for quantum simulation and quantum information applications.” 

Year 2009

2009 Prize for Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics: Alain Aspect

The 2009 Senior Prize for Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics is awarded to Alain Aspect, French CNRS Distinguished Researcher, and Professor at the Institut d'Optique Graduate School and at the Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau near Paris. Alain Aspect is a member of both the French Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Technologies, and a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). Aspect has made numerous contributions to the fields of quantum and atom optics, and it was his seminal experiments in 1982 that confirmed the counterintuitive nature of quantum entanglement to which Einstein himself had objected. These results paved the way for the modern research revolution in quantum information processing, and the development of technologies such as quantum cryptography and quantum computing. Since then he has performed numerous other pioneering studies in the fields of both quantum and atom optics, and his work has included – between 1985 and 1992 – a highly significant collaboration on laser cooling of atoms together with 1997 Nobel prize winner Claude Cohen-Tannoudji.

2009 Prize for Applied Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics: Thomas Ebbesen

The 2009 Senior Prize for Applied Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics is awarded to Thomas Ebbesen, Professor at the University of Strasbourg in France, and Director of ISIS, a multidisciplinary research institute funded both by the University and the French CNRS. Thomas Ebbesen is also a Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Ebbesen has carried out research into a range of topics in physics and chemistry, including novel carbon materials and superconductivity. The Quantum Electronics and Optics Prize is awarded for his work carried out since the early 1990s into the novel optical properties of nanostructured metals and in particular for his discovery of how light can be efficently transmitted through subwavelength holes. His pioneering experiments have greatly contributed to the emergence of the field of surface plasmon photonics. Ebbesen’s work is at the interface of nanoscience and photonics, and impacts on numerous strategic technologies such as opto-electronics, optical communications and sensing.

Fundamental aspects	Applied aspects
Year 2007
Anton Zeilinger Universität Wien, Austria "For his many seminal contributions to the foundations of quantum optics and quantum information science."	Mordechai Segev Technion, Haifa, Israel "For his pioneering contributions in the field of light propagation in nonlinear media, in particular regarding spatial solitons in photorefractive materials, incoherent solitons, and nonlinear waves in periodic structures."
Year 2005
Ignacio Cirac Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany "For groundbreaking theoretical work on quantum information processing and on quantum gases; including pioneering proposals for quantum computation, quantum repeaters, quantum simulations, and quantum phase transitions in ultra-cold atoms."	Gerd Leuchs Max Planck Research Group, University of Erlangen, Germany "For the efficient generation of optical pulses for quantum communication by fiber optics techniques at telecommunications wavelengths and very high bit rates and unprecedented quantum noise reduction and entanglement."
Year 2003
Luigi Lugiato Dipartimento di Scienze, Universita dell'Insubria Como, Italia. "For pioneering theoretical contributions to the fields of optical bistability and instabilities, optical pattern formation and cavity solitons, squeezing and quantum imaging".	Gunter Huber Institut für Laser-Physik, Universität Hamburg, Germany "For his outstanding and numerous contributions to physics of solid-state lasers and spectroscopy of laser crystals".
Year 2002
Serge Haroche Ecole Normale Supérieure and Collège de France "For his pioneering investigations in Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics. Quantum Information and Decoherence".	Wilson Sibbett St. Andrews Univerity, Scotland "For his major contributions to the development and application of ultrashort light pulse techniques, and in particular to the development of self-mode-locked lasers".
Year 2001
Theodor W. Hänsch Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik Garching, Germany "For his innovative contributions to laser spectroscopy, in particular regarding precision spectroscopy of hydrogen"	Algis Petras Piskarskas Vilnius University, Dept. of Physics, Lithuania "For his his pioneering research and development of ultrashort pulsed light sources based on optical parametric generation and oscillation".
Year 2000
Herbert Walther Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik University of Munich, Munich, Germany "For the creation of the micromaser and the realisation of ionic crystals in traps"	David Hanna Optoelectronics Research Centre University of Southampton, UK "For his outstanding and numerous contributions to solid state laser physics and non-linear optics"
Year 1998
Vladilen Letokhov "For pioneering and far-reaching contributions to the study of laser/matter interactions including atom optics, laser cooling, laser induced chemistry and laser analytical techniques"	Orazio Svelto "For pioneering and outstanding continuing activity in the fields of ultrashort laser pulses and solid state lasers".
Year 1996
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji "For developing the dressed-atom approach in quantum optics and for fundamental contributions to the understanding of radiative forces with ground-breaking experiments in laser cooling and trapping of atoms".	Sune Svanberg "For pioneering laser applications in the fields of combustion diagnostics, remote sensing and biomedicine".