03.12.2010
	Professor Theodor W. Hänsch receives "Bavarian Constitution Medal" in Gold.
	On December 2, 2010, Prof. Theodor W. Hänsch, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and Head of the Laser Spectroscopy Division, has been honoured by the Bavarian government with the “Bavarian Constitution Medal” in gold. As was pointed out by Barbara Stamm, the president of the state parliament, at the award ceremony, “this medal is given to personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the general public.” The Bavarian Constitutional Medal has been established in 1961 and belongs to the most distinguished and rarely given Bavarian awards.
	30.11.2010
	ERC Starting Grant for Dr. Eleftherios Goulielmakis
	Dr. Eleftherios Goulielmakis, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching (Germany), has been selected by the European Research Council as one of recipients of an ERC Starting Grant for the year 2010. ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grants (ERC Starting Grants) aim to “support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish or consolidate a proper research team and to start conducting independent research in Europe.” The scheme targets promising researchers who have already demonstrated their high potential of becoming independent research leaders. The grant is meant to support the scientists in the creation of excellent new research teams.
	12.11.2010
	2010 ICO Prize is awarded to Reinhard Kienberger
	The International Commission for Optics donates this year’s ICO prize to Reinhard Kienberger for his “outstanding scientific contributions to Optics and Photonics”. Kienberger, a member of the Excellence Cluster Munich Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP) and since September 2009 a professor of experimental physics at the Technische Universität München (TUM), has made pioneering contributions to the field of attosecond physics, having been for many years a close collaborator of Prof. Ferenc Krausz, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching and head of the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics.
	11.11.2010
	Prof. Theodor W. Hänsch becomes Honorary Chair Professor at the "University System of Taiwan"
	On the occasion of a recent visit to Taiwan, Professor Theodor W. Hänsch has been named Honorary Professor at the National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu. National Chiao Tung University is an internationally highly ranked research university. Together with National Tsing Hua University, National Central University, and National Yang Ming University it is part of the University System of Taiwan, UST. The Chancellor of UST, Prof. Yan-Hwa Wu Lee, has appointed Prof. Hänsch an Honoray Chair Professor for the entire university system UST during the period from November 3, 2010 to November 3, 2020.
	23.06.2010
	IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics for Dr. Eleftherios Goulielmakis
	Dr. Eleftherios Goulielmakis, a young research scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching (Germany), has been chosen by the International Commission of Optics (ICO) and the Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) that grants the Prize, as the recipient of the 2009 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics “for outstanding contributions in attosecond physics, particularly for the generation of attosecond pulses and their application for the direct measurement of light waves”. The IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics is awarded to individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to applied optics and photonics during a maximum of eight years of research experience after having earned a PhD degree.
	11.05.2010
	Dr. Albert Schließer receives Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society
	Dr. Albert Schließer, a young research scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching (near Munich), has been awarded the Otto Hahn Medal 2009. Since 1978 this award is annually given to up to 40 young scientists by the Max Planck Society. It is supposed to encourage highly talented people to pursue a professional career at universities and institutes in the field of fundamental research. Dr. Schließer receives this award “for his contributions to the investigation of the effects of light pressure in optical microresonators, in particular for the first demonstration of optomechanical laser-cooling of mechanical oscillators”.
	16.04.2010
	Catalan Culture Award for Professor Ignacio Cirac
	On April 13, 2010, Professor Ignacio Cirac, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Garching, near Munich) and leader of the Theory Division, has been honoured with the National Culture Award from Catalonia „Premi Nacional de Pensament i Cultura Científica“. Born in the Catalan city of Manresa, Prof. Cirac receives this distinction for “his pioneering work on quantum information processing, which will lead to performing calculations that cannot be solved with traditional methods.” The Catalan Culture Awards are given annually in different cultural and scientific categories to personalities which are elected by a jury of 23 scientists, artists and journalists. By establishing this award the Catalan Arts Council, founded in March 2009, aims at promoting scientific and cultural activities, independent of government and regardless of political situations.
	30.03.2010
	2010 Beller Lectureship Award from the American Physical Society for Dr. Nathalie Picqué
	Dr. Nathalie Picqué received the 2010 Beller Lectureship Award “for pioneering work on the application of laser frequency combs to molecular spectroscopy”. This distinction is awarded by the American Physical Society (APS) to non-US exceptional scientists. A permanent senior research scientist with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), Dr. Picqué is currently on long-term leave at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Garching, near Munich) and the Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, where she works in the Laser Spectroscopy Division of Professor Theodor W. Hänsch.
	26.03.2010
	Dr. Thomas Udem has been elected as OSA Fellow 2010
	The Board of Directors of the Optical Society of America (OSA) has elevated Dr. Thomas Udem, a scientist at the Laser Spectroscopy Division at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching (near Munich), to the rank of an “OSA fellow 2010”. The award is given to him “for groundbreaking work on precision spectroscopy with laser frequency combs”. For the development of this new measuring tool Prof. Theodor W. Hänsch, Director at MPQ and head of the Laser Spectroscopy Division, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2005.

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