Bessel Research Award of the AvH Foundation for visiting scientist at University of Kaiserslautern

The theoretical physicist David Petrosyan from the Research center FORTH in Heraklion (Greece) has received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is being honored for his research achievements in the field of theoretical quantum optics.

The awardee holds a doctorate from the Armenian Academy of Sciences (1999), and after stays at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching and at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he works since 2002 at the prestigious Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas.

The Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award is given annually by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to promising researchers from abroad. This award honors outstanding young scientists who have already obtained international recognition in their field. Nominations are made by scientists in Germany, in this case by Professor Dr. Michael Fleischhauer (Department of Physics and State Research Center OPTIMAS at TU Kaiserslautern).

Dr. Petrosyan is an internationally recognized expert in theoretical quantum optics and quantum information. His research interests range from non-linear quantum optics of coherently driven atomic systems, to photonic crystals and many-body physics in ultra-cold quantum gases. He has provided significant contributions to the many-body theory of interacting Rydberg gases, their interaction with light and potential applications for photon-based quantum information processing. He is co-author of the excellent quantum optics textbook “Fundamentals of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information” published by Springer.The physicist is a former stipend holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Last year he was a visiting professor at Aarhus University in Denmark.

The Bessel Award, which is endowed with 45,000 Euro, provides the opportunity to carry out self-chosen research projects in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany. For his research project, Dr. Petrosyan has chosen Professor Fleischhauer as his host, with whom he was already a visiting scientist in 2006 and 2011. Ten publications have until now emerged from their joint research efforts, two of them in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. “Through the Bessel Award I can intensify my long-lasting cooperation with Michael Fleischhauer and his group. We already have a lot of new research ideas on optically driven Rydberg gases that we can now explore together”, says David Petrosyan. He looks forward to his stays at the Department of Physics of the University of Kaiserslautern in the coming years.

The official ceremony of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award will take place in March at the annual Symposium for Research Award Winners of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bamberg. Overall, the Foundation awards up to 25 Bessel awards annually.

Further information:
Prof. Dr. Michael Fleischhauer
Tel.: +49 631 205 3206, E-Mail: mfleisch(at)physik.uni-kl.de