Professor Theodor W. Hänsch receives "Bavarian Constitution Medal" in Gold.
This medal is given to personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the general public.
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.
Professor Hänsch was born in Heidelberg in 1941. He studied physics at the University of Heidelberg, earning his doctorate in 1969. He went on to post-doctoral study in the United States, and was a professor of physics at Stanford University from 1975 to 1986. Since 1986 he has been Director at the MPQ and Chair of Experimental Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. His main research fields are the high-precision laser spectroscopy of hydrogen and similar elements and the investigation of ultracold quantum gases.
Professor Hänsch has received many scientific prizes and awards. Among others he was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 1988. Twice – in 1998 and 2000 – he received the renowned Philip Morris Research Prize. In 2006 the Große Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern (Great Cross of Merit with Star) of the Federal Republic of Germany was conferred upon him. The Nobel prize in physics 2005 was awarded to him for the development of the frequency comb technique. [O.M.]
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Theodor W. Hänsch
Chair of Experimental Physics, LMU München
Director at Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics
Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching
Phone: +49 (0)89 32 905 -702/712 / Fax: -312
E-mail: t.w.haensch@mpq.mpg.de
Dr. Olivia Meyer-Streng
Press & Public Relations
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching
Phone: +49 (0)89 32 905 -213
E-mail: olivia.meyer-streng@mpq.mpg.de