Jun Ye, a NIST Fellow working at JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, has received the 2009 European Frequency and Time Award. Ye was honored for his pioneering work in establishing a neutral atom optical lattice clock, narrow linewidth lasers, femtosecond spectroscopy, and phase-coherent transmission of frequencies via optical fibers. The award was presented in April during the joint European Frequency and Time Forum and IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium held in France.
The award, described at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5168110, recognizes exceptional contributions as judged on the basis of initiative and creativity, quality of work, degree of success obtained as well as the worldwide scientific impact on the time and frequency community.
Leo Hollberg, a physicist and group leader who recently retired from NIST Boulder, will receive the 2009 William F. Meggers Award from the Optical Society of America (OSA). The award recognizes outstanding work in spectroscopy and is named after a physicist who worked at NIST from 1914 to 1958. Hollberg was cited for his seminal contributions to the development of diode lasers as powerful spectroscopic tools, development of femtosecond frequency combs, and demonstration of unique quantum effects in the interaction between light and atoms.
Hollberg will accept the award in October at the OSA annual meeting in San Jose, Calif. For more, see the OSA press release, "The Optical Society Bestows 17 Awards for 2009."