We welcome our guests from Riyadh!
Today, we welcome visitors from Saudi Arabia to the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics. Nouf Jaber, Al Batool Aba Al-Khahil and Zainah Ali Al-Qahtani are studying at King Saud University in Riyadh, and have come to the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics for a month to broaden their knowledge of laser physics. As part of our collaboration with the King Saud University, we plan to hold regular Summer Schools specifically for female physicists from Saudi Arabia in the coming years. It is a pleasure to welcome this first group to Munich. We wish them every success, and hope they enjoy their stay in the Institute and in the city.
First isolated attosecond pulses in Saudi-Arabia
The science of ultrashort metrology in the Attosecond Science Laboratory (ASL) in Riyadh picks up speed. The German/Saudi-Arabian team of physicists led by Prof. Ferenc Krausz and Prof. Abdallah Azzeer produced as the first team in the Arabic World isolated attosecond pulses in the ASL laboratory of the King Saud University in Riyadh. A big success for ultrafast physics in Saudi-Arabia. Attosecond-short light flashes are used for taking photographs of electrons. The team plans to observe the dynamics of electrons in molecules in the time dimension of attoseconds in order to examine processes in molecules in photoemission. During photoemission electrons are knocked out of atoms by photons (i. e. by light). This process is a major cause of damages to living cells. Increased knowledge about photoemission is thus crucial not only for physics, but also for medicine. Picture: Wolfgang Schweinberger
Seehofer visits the new attosecond laboratory in Riyadh
During his visit to Saudi Arabia the Bavarian prime minister Horst Seehofer visited the King Saud University in Riyadh. After a short ride, leading through the whole campus, Seehofer went to the new Attosecond Science laboratory, which is run by the KSU in cooperation with the LMU Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics.
Here, Saudi Arabian Scientists and their Munich colleagues will research the movements of electrons together. Seehofer was impressed by the complex fundamental research and the unique collaboration.
LMU rector Prof. Bernd Huber and Prof. Badran A. Al-omar (rector of the KSU), joined many journalists and members of the delegation for Seehofer’s visit to the lab, which lasted about half an hour.
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Spotlight on Early Cancer Detection with Lasers (ECDL) – workshop at MPQ Garching
It would be tremendously beneficial to develop ways to detect and tackle cancerous development at a much earlier stage of the disease than is presently possible. Last week on June 11th and 12th 2015, a workshop was held at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) to discuss the latest advances, perspectives and challenges in the emerging research area of early cancer detection.
The workshop served to discuss joint efforts by scientists from the fields of cutting-edge laser physics, cell biology, cancer medicine, biochemistry and bioinformatics from MPQ, Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), University of Innsbruck (Austria) as well as King Saud University (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia).
Joint inter-disciplinary efforts and new approaches are building a bridge between novel laser technologies and clinically relevant cancer detection. These collaborative efforts have the potential to provide a springboard to detect cancerous onset earlier than ever.
New team member for the ASL in Riyadh – Dr. Nora Kling
The King Saud University welcomed Dr. Nora Kling, postdoc at the LMU, as a new co-worker in the Attosecond Science Laboratory in Riyadh. Together with Wolfgang Schweinberger and her colleagues from the KSU she is now working on the first laser experiments.
"The attosecond lab in Riyadh is top notch, so it is natural to want to be a part of it. It is great to have the opportunity to work with world class researchers at KSU and MPQ/LMU together in Saudi Arabia“, Nora Kling says, „ I am gaining new experiences regarding light-matter interactions on ultrafast timescales as well as becoming more culturally connected to the world.“
