The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development in Kuwait recently granted Dr. Ali Sami Alnaser, Associate Professor in Physics at AUS, the "Distinguished Scholar Award" to carry out a research project entitled "Probing and Manipulating Ultrafast Processes in Hydrocarbons using Ultrashort Laser Pulses."

Commencing on September 1, 2011, Dr. Alnaser will use this $60,000 one-year grant to conduct research at the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) operated jointly at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU).

According to Dr. Gautam Sen, Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies at AUS, "This award from the Arab Fund is highly competitive and is awarded to the true scholars who lead their own fields of study. This award is a significant recognition of Dr. Alnaser's accomplishments in a frontier area of atomic physics research. The fact that he has been invited by two of Europe's most prestigious scientific research institutes to do this cutting edge project attests to his visibility in his field and also to the high-quality research environment in AUS."

Dr. Alnaser felt greatly encouraged by the recognition of his research achievements with an award that less than 10 percent of applicants are approved for. "The award will help me in conducting research at one of the world-leading institutes in the laser industry and applications in basic sciences, industry, energy and environment-research," he said.

"In addition to contributing to a rich exchange in knowledge and achieving the objectives of my proposal, I hope that my project will spark a fruitful and long-term collaboration between AUS and MPQ and will aid in establishing state-of-the-art local laboratories at AUS in ultrafast lasers and application," concluded Dr. Alnaser.

During his year abroad, Dr. Alnaser will participate and contribute to research on attosecond correlated and collective electron dynamics in atoms, molecules and nanostructures.

Dr. Alnaser, who earned his doctoral and postdoctoral degrees in Western Michigan University and the University of Kansas respectively, has published more than 35 peer-reviewed articles and has contributed numerous papers at international atomic physics conferences in North America and Europe. He continues to maintain steady experimental research activities in leading universities and laboratories in the US, Canada and Europe.