AMOPD Prizes:      Young Scientist Prize  &   Letokhov Medal

Young Scientist Prize (YSP)

of the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Division (AMOPD)

of the European Physical Society (EPS)

The Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Division (AMOPD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) awards a Young Scientist Prize (YSP) triannually at its main division event, the European Conference on Atomic and Molecular Physics (ECAMP). The prize consists of a medal, a cheque in the amount of EUR 1,500, an invited talk at the edition of ECAMP the prize is awarded, and an invitation to write a "colloquium" article for EPJD.

Nominations are being sought for the Young Scientist Prize will be awarded by the AMOP Division of the EPS for the 4^th time in 2025. The award ceremony will take place during the 15^th European Conference on Atomic and Molecular Physics (ECAMP XV) to be held in Innsbruck, Austria, June 29 - July 4, 2025.

Young Scientist Prize (YSP) 2025        

OPEN FOR NOMINATIONS until November 15^th, 2024

NOMINATIONS for Young Scientist Prize for 2025, should include:

• A letter (no more than 1,000 words) summarizing the nominee´s achievements and identifying the specific work to be recognized.
• A list of all publications
• A brief biographical sketch (no more than 2 pages).

Self-nomination will not be considered. Nominations should be sent by e-mail, with the subject "YSP Nomination", to the AMOPD Chair: alicia.palacios@uam.es

The nominee is expected to have made original and outstanding contributions to the field of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. The leading personal contribution of the nominee to the achievements must be clearly identifiable when the work was performed in collaboration. Nominees for the prize should have, as of January 1, 2025, a maximum of 8 years of research experience following the PhD (excluding career interruptions such as maternal leave or mandatory military service).

AMOPD Young Scientist Awardees

Young Scientist Prize (YSP) 2022

Jordi Tura (Leiden University) for his "pioneering work in Quantum Information Theory, in particular on quantum non-locality in many-body systems". The prize was awarded at the ECAMP XIV, June 27 – July 1, 2022, in Vilnius, Lithuania.

In the picture, from left to right: Joachim Burgdörfer (Chair EPS division AMOPD in 2022)

Jordi Tourá (YSP-2022 winner) and Maciej Lewenstein (Plenary lecture at ECAMP XIII)

Young Scientist Prize (YSP) 2019

Philipp Haslinger (TU Wien) for his "original contribution to precision atom interferometry including the first measurement of black-body radiation forces on atoms". He received the prize in an award ceremony at the ECAMP XIII, April 8 – 12, 2019, in Florence, Italy.

In the picture, from left to right: Guglielmo M. Tino (Local Chair at ECAMP XIII),

Philipp Haslinger (YSP-2019 winner) and Joachim Burgdörfer (Chair EPS division AMOPD in 2019)

Young Scientist Prize (YSP) 2016

Christian Brand (University of Vienna, Austria) for his "outstanding contribution to matter-wave experiments with complex molecules”. The prize was awarded at the ECAMP XII, September 5-7, 2016, held at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt (Germany). 

In the picture, from left to right: Reinhard Dörner (Local chair at ECAMP XIII),

Christian Brand (YSP-winner 2016) and Dominique Vernhet (AMOPD Chair in 2016)

Christian Brand studied for his PhD at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf (Germany) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. M. Schmitt. His doctorate contribution on “Shaping and Modelling Electronically Excited States of Indoles” has already received an award from the German Physical Society. After receiving his PhD degree in 2013, he then moved to the Institute for Quantum Nanophysics & Molecular Quantum Optics at the University of Vienna, Austria to join the group of Prof. Dr. M. Arndt as postdoctoral researcher. Christian Brand gave a “hot topic talk” at ECAMP12 on “An Atomically Thin Matter-Wave Beam Splitter”.

Vladilen Letokhov Medal

The Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Division (AMOPD) and the Quantum Electronics and Optics Division (QEOD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) together with the Russian Academy of Sciences award the Letokhov medal biannually year at a major conference.

Vladilen Letokhov (former Vice-Director of the RAS-Institute of Spectroscopy)

Established in memory of Vladilen Letokhov (1939-2009), former Vice-Director of the Institute of Spectroscopy of the Russian Academy of Sciences and pioneer in several fields of laser physics, the Letokhov Medal aims at recognizing outstanding contributions in laser-matter interaction, in particular spectroscopy of atoms and molecules, laser manipulation of atoms, and strong field processes.

The prize consists of a medal, a certificate and a monetary award of 5,000 Euros.

Letokhov Medal Awardees

Vladilen Letokhov Medal 2021

In 2021, the Letokhov Medal has been awarded to Massimo Inguscio at the CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2021, taking place as a virtual conference from June 21 - 25.

Massimo Inguscio, Campus Bio-medico University of Rome, Italy, has been awarded for world class experiments in AMO physics, from spectroscopy of metastable helium to pioneering work with degenerate bosonic or fermionic quantum gases, and for many services to the international AMO community.

Massimo Inguscio (Vladilen Letokhov Medal winner 2021)

Massimo Inguscio received his Ph.D. from Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy) in 1976. He has been Professor of Optics and Physics of Matter at the Universities of Napoli and Firenze and, since 2019, at Campus Bio-medico University of Rome. He has been co-founder and director of the European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy (LENS), President of the Italian metrology institute (INRIM), President of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). His research activity spans from high-precision spectroscopy of atoms and molecules for fundamental tests of physics, to experiments with ultracold quantum gases and mixtures for the development of atom-based and photon-based quantum technologies.

Vladilen Letokhov Medal 2019

In 2019, the first Vladilen Letokhov Medal was awarded at the 13th European Conference on Atoms, Molecules and Photons (ECAMP), Florence, Italy, April 8 - 12. At ECAMP XIII, the newly established Lethokov medal jointly established by the AMOPD and the Quantum electronics and Optics (QEO) division of EPS in collaboration with the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) has been awarded to Ferenc Krausz, Max Plack Institute for Quantum Optics and Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, for his "contribution to the development of high-field laser physics, in particular for pioneering attosecond physics, through which real-time views of electron motion in atoms, molecules, and solids have become possible".  

From left to right: Ferenc Krausz (Vladilen Letokhov Medal winner 2019), Joachim Burgdörfer (Chair EPS division AMOPD), Luc Bergé (Chair EPS division QEO).