The American Physical Society (APS) is the world's largest organization of physicists. It was founded in 1899 with the aim to “to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics". Today, the APS numbers some 50,000 members worldwide, and publishes over a dozen scientific journals, including the prestigious Physical Review and Physical Review Letters. It also runs more than twenty science conferences each year, and is a member society of the American Institute of Physics.
Despite its size, APS Fellows make up a mere 0.5% of the Society’s membership, making it a distinct honor. According to its criteria, fellowships is awarded for “exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise; e.g., outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education.”
Christoph Bostedt, Head of the Laboratory for Femtochemistry, was named APS Felllow in 2018. In May 2019, he received his fellowship certificate at the 50th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP) APS Meeting in Milwaukee.
Professor Bostedt is an expert on ultrafast x-ray sciences with applications to atomic, molecular, and optical physics as well as physical chemistry. He uses intense, femtosecond x-ray pulses from novel free-electron laser sources to image the structure and non-equilibrium dynamics in nanometer-sized particles. He further develops novel non-linear x-ray spectroscopy approaches to investigate electronic and nuclear dynamics in atoms, molecules, and clusters. The APS citation for Professor Bostedt reads: “For pioneering studies that elucidate the mechanisms and dynamics of high-intensity x-ray interactions with nanoparticles”.