Marlan Orvil Scully

Professor Marlan O. Scully is the Burgess Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University and Distinguished Research Academician at Baylor University. His work includes the first quantum theory of the laser with Lamb, the first demonstrations of lasing without inversion, the first demonstration of ultraslow light in hot gases, and the use of quantum coherence to detect anthrax in real time. Furthermore Scully's work on quantum coherence and correlation effects has shed new light on the foundations of quantum mechanics, e.g., the quantum eraser. 
He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, and Max Planck Society; has numerous awards including the APS Schawlow prize, OSA Townes Award, IEEE Quantum Electronics Award, Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal, OSA Lomb Medal, and Humboldt Senior Faculty Prize. More recently he was named Harvard Loeb Lecturer, received an honorary doctorate from University of Ulm, and was awarded the OSA's DPG Hebert Walther Award. He is a key developer of the quantum theory of the laser and of free electron lasers and the ring gyro laser which is used in commercial aircraft. Professor Scully made many contributions to laser physics and quantum electronics, including correlated spontaneous emission lasers, lasers without inversion, the theory of laser gyroscopes, and coherence effects in nonlinear optics. Professor Scully co-authored two widely read textbooks on quantum optics.