Theodor W. Hänsch

Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch (b. 30 October 1941 in Heidelberg, Germany) is a German physicist. He shared one half of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with John L. Hall, for "contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique". The other half was awarded to Roy J. Glauber.

Hänsch is Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik (quantum optics) and Professor of experimental physics and laser spectography at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

After gaining his doctorate in Heidelberg, Hänsch was a professor at the Stanford University, California from 1972 to 1986. In 1986 Hänsch returned to Germany to head the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik. In 1989, he received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which is the highest honour awarded in German research. In 2005, he also received the Otto Hahn Award of the City of Frankfurt am Main, the Society of German Chemists and the German Physical Society.

One of his students, Wolfgang Ketterle, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001.

External link

• The Nobel Prize in Physics 2005
• Hänsch's homepage at the LMU
• Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics