Prize Recipient


Recipient Picture

Klaas Bergmann
Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern

Citation:

"For the invention of Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) that became universally used for coherent transfer in quantum systems with unprecedented efficiency and robustness."

Background:

Klaas Bergmann, Physics Professor, retired from the Technische Universitaet Kaiserslautern (TUK) in 2007, but remained involved ever since. He studied physics at Freiburg (PhD 1972, adviser W. Demtroeder) and did postdoctoral work at Berkeley (1973-1974, host C.B.Moore). He was appointed assistant professor at the TUK in 1975 and professor in 1981, was visiting fellow at JILA in 1985 (host S.R. Leone). He coordinated many national and international cooperative research projects, chaired several international conferences, was 2003 - 2008 member of the TUK-Hochschulrat (a governance body) and served as vice-chair and chair of the physics panel in the Marie-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) program of the EU (2008 – 2017). Since 2017 he is employed as scientific head of a development project (laser ranging) by TOPTICA-Projects (Graefelfing/Munich). A characteristic feature of his scientific work is the development of laser-based methods allowing novel experiments in collision dynamics and quantum optics. Memberships: APS (fellow since 1992), German Physical Society (GPS), OSA and European Physical Society. Honors and Awards: Goedecke Research prize (1972, Freiburg), Physics prize (1981, GPS), Robert-Wichard-Pohl prize (2003, GPS), Max-Planck-Research prize (2003), Honorary doctoral degree (2003, Latvian University Riga), Order of Merit (State of Rhineland-Palatinate, 2005), Nature Award for Mentoring in Science (2008), and Senior-Research-Professorship (TUK 2007 – 2015).


Selection Committee:

2020 Selection Committee Members: Ali Belkacem (Chair), John Thomas ('18 Recipient), Hartmut Häffner , Jim Shaffer, Thad Walker