Gunnar Björk appointed as EPS Fellow
Gunnar Björk, Professor of Photonics at KTH is the first Swede to be appointed as an EPS Fellow. This makes him one of only 40 Europeans to hold this honorary title.
The European Physical Society (EPS) limits the number of its Fellows to a maximum of five percent of the number of individual Society members.
“Oh yes this is an honour, a sort of pat on the back from my international colleagues as appreciation for contributions to physics. It is a little like with most prizes – it is often not the prize money or the medal that is the most important thing, it is being elected by the elite within your field, in competition with them,” says Gunnar Björk.
The motivation for the choice of Gunnar Björk states "For his numerous contributions to quantum optics and quantum electronics and for his distinguished services to the European Physical Society, particularly the Quantum Electronics and Optics Division."
In addition to being an honour the idea is that the Fellows are to act as role models for their younger colleagues. This group includes several famous physicists such as Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Nobel Laureate in Physics in 1997 and honorary doctor at KTH in 1998.
EPS was founded in 1968 and represents more than 100 000 members from 40 countries. It also acts as a forum for its more than 2 500 individual members.