The 2014 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics

To be awarded January 8, 2014, at the 44th Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics.

Pierre Meystre, University of Arizona

For pioneering work on many-body quantum optics from the free-electron laser to quantum gases.

Pierre Meystre obtained his Physics Diploma and PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne in 1971 and 1974, respectively, and the Habilitation in Theoretical Physics from the University of Munich in 1983. He joined the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in 1977, following a postdoctoral position with M. O. Scully at The University of Arizona. In 1986, he returned to The University of Arizona where he is currently a Regents Professor of Optical Sciences and Physics, holds the Chair of Quantum Optics and is Director of the B2 Institute. Since 2013 he is also the Lead Editor of Physical Review Letters.

Dr. Meystre’s research includes theoretical quantum optics, atomic physics, ultracold science, and quantum optomechanics. He has published over 300 refereed papers and is the author of the text “Elements of Quantum Optics”, together with Murray Sargent III, and of the monograph “Atom Optics.”

He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, of the American Physical Society, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a recipient of the Humboldt Foundation Research Prize for Senior US Scientists, of the R. W. Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America, and was a Simons Foundation Lecturer at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.

Dr. Meystre serves on numerous national and international committees. He was a member of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Research Council and chaired its Standing Committee on Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. He also chaired the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society, where he currently serves as General Councilor and as a member of the Executive Board.

Bio provided by Prof. Meystre, 2013.