This year's Julius Springer
Prize for Applied Physics will be awarded to Professor Motoichi Ohtsu for
his pioneering and seminal work on nanophotonics and near field optics as well
as for the development of innovative nanophotonic devices, fabrications, and
systems. Ohtsu is a world-renowned optical scientist and one of the leaders
of the optics community. The award, accompanied by US$ 5,000, will be presented
on 22 September 2009 at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC)
in Vienna, Austria.
Nanophotonics exploits the local electromagnetic interaction between nanometric
matter via an optical near-field. To analyze this interaction, Ohtsu pioneered
a quantum optical theory based on the concept of dressed photons. He has devoted
his work to establishing this novel theory and creating corresponding applications.
His essential contribution is not only breaking the diffraction limit of light
but also realizing that innovative optical science and technology would be impossible
using conventional propagating light. Ohtsu's research in nanophotonics
has the potential to revolutionize the telecommunications industry by providing
low-power, high-speed, interference-free devices.
“The requirements for advanced communications and improvements in public
welfare in the near future necessitate improved information processing and optical
telecommunication systems, high-density optical memory, high-resolution displays
and optical input-output interfaces,” said Professor Motoichi. “To
realize these requirements, the development of nanophotonic devices is an essential
research area which industry has recently recognized.”
Motoichi Ohtsu received his Ph.D. in electronics engineering from the Tokyo
Institute of Technology. He is currently Professor in the Department of Electrical
Engineering and Information Systems as well as the Director of the Nanophotonics
Research Center, both at the Graduate School of Engineering at the University
of Tokyo. He has published 420 papers, has presented almost 90 invited papers
at international conferences, and is the author, co-author, or editor of more
than 50 books.
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.
Springer (www.springer.com) is a leading global scientific publisher of books
and journals, delivering quality content through innovative information products
and services. Springer is part of the publishing group Springer Science+Business
Media. In the science, technology and medicine (STM) sector, the group publishes
around 2,000 journals and more than 6,500 new books a year, as well as the largest
STM eBook Collection worldwide.
Posted September 15th, 2009
