Honorary Degree from Heriot-Watt University for Tilman Esslinger
Tilman Esslinger, professor at the Department of Physics, has been recognised with an Honorary Degree from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Honorary Degree is the highest accolade that Heriot-Watt University can bestow on an individual. Today it was awarded to Tilman Esslinger, professor at the Institute for Quantum Electronics in the Department of Physics at ETH Zurich, in recognition of “external pagehis pioneering experiments relating to ultracold atoms and optical lattices, which are helping pave the way for the implementation of quantum technology in a variety of sectors including highly sensitive measurement methods and secure communications”.
Tilman Esslinger studied physics at the Ludwig-Maximillian-University (LMU) in Munich as well as, in 1988/89, at Heriot-Watt University. He then pursued his doctoral and postdoctoral studies at LMU and at the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, before becoming full professor and chair of Quantum Optics at ETH Zurich in October 2001. There he built up an internationally leading group in quantum optics. He is Vice-Director of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research in Quantum Science and Technology (NCCR QSIT) and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He shared the external pageSenior Bose-Einstein Condensation(BEC) Award 2021 and received two ERC Advanced and one SNSF Advamced grants.
The Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) Degree from Heriot-Watt University was presented to Esslinger today during has part of the Summer Graduations ceremony. The laureation was given by Prof. Patrik Öhberg, Head of Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, who emphasized in particular the substantial impact of Esslinger’s research on the field of quantum science.