Awards

IEEE Photonics Society Laser Instrumentation Award

Recognizes key contributors to the field for developments of laser-based and electro-optical instruments, which lead to the development of innovative systems enabling major new measurements or process capabilities of relevance to applications in industrial, biomedical avionic and metrology fields.

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Nomination Period: April 15 – May 31

Nominators must complete a nominee submission by May 31st each year with the following:

  • Statement identifying the specific work or achievement to be recognized.
  • Description of the significant aspects of nominees’ career and technical accomplishment(s) that qualify Nominee for Award, including the impact of the work, as well as other related accomplishments; publications, patents, etc.
  • Proposed Award Citation: (Word Count: 20)
  • Nominee’s curriculum vita (Maximum of three pages)
  • Endorsements: A minimum of two, maximum of three endorsement letters are required and must be submitted by the endorsers by the nomination deadline. The nominator cannot be an endorser.

About the Award

The IEEE Photonics Society Laser Instrumentation Award recognizes key contributors to the field for developments of laser-based and electro-optical instruments, which lead to the development of innovative systems enabling major new measurements or process capabilities of relevance to applications in industrial, biomedical avionic and metrology fields.

Presented to: An Individual or team, up to three in number

Scope: To recognize key contributors to the field for developments of laser-based and electro-optical instruments, which lead to the development of innovative systems enabling major new measurements or process capabilities of relevance to applications in industrial, biomedical avionic and metrology fields.

Prize: A Certificate and Honorarium

Basis for judging: The field(s) to be considered are classical and Self-Mixing Laser Interferometry, Optical Coherence Tomography, Digital Holography, Diffraction and Interference-based Measuring Devices like Particle Size Analyzers, Laser Interferometers, Optical Gyroscopes, and Laser Doppler Velocimeters, Measurements of distance and kinematic quantities, realized in either bulk-optics or integrated optics technologies. Measurements for the sole characterization of optical devices or fibers are not eligible.

Introducing Our Award Honorees

We are proud to recognize and celebrate honorees of the IEEE Photonics Society Laser Instrumentation Award. 

Our Most Recent Honoree

Franz X Kartner

Franz X. Kärtner, 2022

For development, and commercialization of femtosecond pulsed optical timing distribution systems for large-scale science facilities.

Franz X. Kärtner is a Group Leader in the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron – DESY Hamburg and Professor at Universität Hamburg, where he carries out research in ultrafast laser physics and compact X-ray sources. He received his Diploma and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Technische Universität München (TUM), Germany in 1986, and 1989, respectively, and continued as an academic staff member till 1991. After a 2 year postdoc stay at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working on quantum optics in optical fibers, through a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he continued at ETH Zurich on ultrashort pulse laser physics, where he received the Venia Legendi in 1997. After a visiting professorship in 1998 at MIT, he became a full professor in Electrical Engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology from 1999-2001 and MIT from 2001-2010, before joining DESY and Universität Hamburg in 2011.

His research interests include classical and quantum noise in electronic and optical systems and devices, few-cycle and ultralow jitter femtosecond lasers, and its use in precision timing distribution systems for large-scale science facilities and photonic analog-to-digital conversion, attosecond science, Terahertz acceleration and the physics of coherent x-ray sources. In 2015, he co-founded Cycle GmbH to commercialize pulsed optical timing distribution and synchronization systems, which he pioneered with his research groups at MIT and DESY and are now deployed in many photon science facilities around the world. He is a Fellow of IEEE and OPTICA.

View All Award Winners

YearAward WinnerCitation
2021

Scott Diddams

Andrew 'AJ Metcalf

Conner Fredrick

For development, deployment, and operation of an electro-optic laser frequency comb that enables the most precise near-infrared astronomical Doppler spectroscopy.
2020 Juergen Czarske For pioneering and sustained contributions to laser Doppler velocimetry, distance and kinematic instruments, and digital holographic sensing.