The 2005 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics
Awarded January 5, 2005, at the 35th Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics.
Sune Svanberg, University of Lund, Sweden
For outstanding contributions to medical physics, especially laser medical diagnostics and treatment.
Sune Svanberg was born in 1943, received his PhD in Physics from Göteborg University, Sweden in 1972 and is since 1980 professor and head of the Atomic Physics Division, Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden. Since 1995 he is the director of the Lund Laser Center. Starting his research with atomic resonance spectroscopy, he since 1973 has been utilizing tuneable lasers for basic and applied atomic and molecular spectroscopy. Further, he helped establish the Lund High Power Laser Facility now featuring a 30 TW laser system, which is used in X-ray generation and particle acceleration experiments.
Applications pursued by Sune Svanberg include environmental monitoring by laser radar and diode laser spectroscopy. He also helped establish the now extensive combustion diagnostics activities in Lund. He has been active for over 20 years in medical laser applications including fluorescence diagnostics of malignant disease, optical mammography and photodynamic treatment of tumors. Presently he and collaborators are developing advanced techniques for interstitial fiber-based therapy pursued interactively with spectroscopic diagnostics.