The Willis Lamb Award for Laser Physics and Quantum Optics 2018 is presented to Prof. Ernst M. Rasel for his pioneering work in the field of ultra-cold atom research under zero gravity. The award will be presented during the Winter Colloquium at the Physics of Quantum Electronics Conference in Snowbird, Utah.
On January 10, 2018, Professor Ernst M. Rasel of the Leibniz Universität Hannover was awarded the 2018 Willis Lamb Award for Laser Physics and Quantum Optics. In addition to Ernst Rasel, the award also went to Austrian quantum computer scientist Peter Zoller and Chinese quantum physicist Jian-Wei Pan. Ernst M. Rasel is honored for his pioneering work in the field of ultra-cold atom research under zero gravity.
The award is named after the American Nobel Laureate in Physics Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr., who has laid essential foundations in numerous areas of physics and technology. Among the previous winners are numerous outstanding personalities in physics. Last year Rainer Weiss from MIT received et al this award, who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in December in Stockholm for the co-detection of gravitational waves.
To the person
Prof. Ernst Maria Rasel, studied physics in Munich and completed his doctorate in Innsbruck under Prof. A. Zeilinger. He worked as a research assistant at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris with the Nobel Prize winner C. Cohen-Tannoudji and the winner of the Irène-Joliot-Curie Prize Michèle Leduc in France. He was a research associate in Hannover at the Institute of Quantum Optics in the group of Leibniz Prize winner Prof. W. Ertmer. He received his habilitation in 2006 from Leibniz University for his work. Since 2008 he is a professor at the Leibniz Universität Hannover and member of the cluster QUEST - Center for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research-. Ernst Maria Rasel is a leading expert in matter waves interferometry. His research group is investigating the fundamental aspects of matter wave optics, in particular the interferometry with Bose-Einstein condensates. It develops methods and sources to make Bose-Einstein condensates and non-classical states of matter useful for interferometry and to improve their sensitivity and accuracy.
An important focus is also matter wave interferometry under zero gravity. An important milestone was reached in this field in January 2017 on the MAIUS research rocket mission. The mission, a DLR funded cooperation of several universities and research institutes, served to demonstrate the generation of Bose-Einstein condensates for the first time in space using atomic chips and to investigate this fascinating matter-wave state for interferometric experiments. The mission is a scout for future quantum tests of the equivalence principle and for applications in satellite gravimetry.
