Prestigious award for St Andrews scientist

Professor Sibbett receiving the Charles Hard Townes Award from Professor Dainty, the President of the Optical Society of America.

A University of St Andrews academic has been awarded a prestigious award by the Optical Society of America.

Wilson Sibbett, Wardlaw Professor of Physics at the University, was presented with the Charles H. Townes Award at a special event in Baltimore.

In the citation for the award, Professor Sibbett was being recognised ‘for pioneering breakthroughs in the science and technology of ultrafast lasers and for their practical applications in photophysics, photochemistry, photomedicine, engineering and communications’.

The award was established in 1980 to honour the Nobel laureate, Charles Hard Townes, whose pioneering contributions to masers and lasers led to the development of the quantum electronics field.

It is given annually either to an individual or a group of individuals for outstanding experimental or theoretical work, discovery or invention in the field of quantum electronics.

In receiving the award, Professor Sibbett is following in the footsteps of his PhD supervisor, the late Professor Dan Bradley, who was presented with it in 1989.

Professor Sibbett, a Fellow of the Optical Society of America since 1998, commented, “I was delighted and honoured to receive such a prestigious accolade.  Being invited to take part in the high-profile international events that were organised to celebrate the 50th birthday of the laser in 2010 was recognition in itself and I regard this Charles H. Townes Award as a wonderful and unexpected bonus.”

ENDS

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Ref: Sibbett Award 200511