Each year, the Optical Society of America presents awards to recognize individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to the science of light. This year’s awards and medals will be formally presented next month at the society’s annual meeting in Tucson, Arizona.
The Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Endowment, the society’s most prestigious honor, will be bestowed on Herbert Walther, professor emeritus at the University of Munich and at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany. Walther is being honored for his work in quantum optics, “including the development of the micromaser and the demonstration of Wigner crystallization of laser-cooled ions.”
Ajoy Ghatak will receive the Esther Hoffman Beller Medal for his “outstanding contributions to optics education” and for “leadership of a major fiber optics and optoelectronics research and training program in a developing nation,” according to the citation. Ghatak is a professor of physics at the...
