NIST physicist David Wineland will receive the inaugural Herbert Walther Award in recognition of his "seminal contributions to quantum information physics and metrology, and the development of trapped ion techniques for applications to basic quantum phenomena, plasma physics and optical clocks." The award is made jointly by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (the German physical society) and will be presented by each society in alternate years. The OSA will present Wineland's award in June 2009 at a meeting in Germany.
The award is named in honor of Professor Herbert Walther, a founding director of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and former chair of physics at Ludwig Maximilian's University, both in Germany, for his innovations in quantum optics and atomic physics as well as leadership in the international scientific community. For more information, see http://www.osa.org/en-us/about_osa/newsroom/news_releases/2008/waltheraward/.
