Pioneer of lasers and optics Orazio Svelto receives Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics 2011

This year's Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics will be awarded to Professor Orazio Svelto for his pioneering, long-lasting and innovative work in the fields of lasers and optics. Svelto is an internationally renowned laser and photonics scientist and one of the worldwide leaders of the scientific community in this field. The award, accompanied by EUR 5,000, will be presented on 24 May 2011 at the Laser World of Photonics Congress in Munich, Germany.

The research activities of Orazio Svelto focus on physics of laser resonators and techniques of mode selection, laser applications in biology and biomedicine, and physics of solid-state lasers, in particular ultrashort laser pulse generation.

Orazio Svelto is Professor of Physics of Matter at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan. He is also responsible for the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the Italian National Research Council − Milan section. His research has covered a wide range of activity in the field of laser physics and photonics, starting from the early beginning of these disciplines in 1962. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers and holds three patents. Svelto is the recipient of several awards, including the Quantum Electronics Prize of the European Physical Society and the Charles H. Townes Award of the Optical Society of America.

At Springer, Professor Svelto has published his book Principles of Lasers (5th Ed., 2009) which has currently been adopted at several universities in Europe and the United States. The book's previous editions were translated into Russian, Chinese, Greek, Arabic and Farsi.

The Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics recognizes researchers who have made an outstanding and innovative contribution to the fields of applied physics. It has been awarded annually since 1998 by the Editors-in-Chief of the Springer journals Applied Physics A – Materials Science & Processing and Applied Physics B – Lasers and Optics.