Laser & Photon. Rev. 1, No. 4, 295 (2007) / DOI 10.1002/lpor.200710036 295

Editorial

As I am writing these lines, the first year of Laser & Pho-tonics Reviews draws to a close. The resonance it foundand the well-elaborated articles are the best proof that thefounding of this new journal was a good decision thatmet a real need in our fast-moving scientific community.I strongly believe in the success and the concept of Laser& Photonics Reviews either as a medium that can give ashort and comprehensive introduction to a specific topic orsimply as a way to keep up-to-date with the vast progressin the whole world of laser and photonic technologies.

In this first year Laser & Photonics Reviews has al-ready covered many different topics ranging from quantumaspects and spectroscopy to laser crystals and advancedphotonic materials. It is time now to consider the fascinat-ing advances that the photonic technologies incite in themany application fields – especially in material process-ing and laser-based manufacturing. The undamped successand the ongoing growth of lasers in material processingare not only reflected in the positive economic develop-ment but can also be seen from the increasing attentionthat scientific conferences and exhibitions in these fieldshave attracted. I felt that this flavour was especially dis-tinct this year when our community met at the occasionof LASER 2007 in conjunction with the World of Pho-tonics Congress in Munich. With more than 25,000 atten-dees LASER 2007 has become the largest photonics meet-ing worldwide. In 2008 we will see the opening of thenew International Trade Fair for System Solutions in Mate-rial Processing, LASYS, in conjunction with the StuttgartLaser Technologies Forum, SLT’08, as a further signal ofthe growing importance of photonic technologies in indus-trial manufacturing. It therefore looks like a good time todevote an upcoming issue of Laser & Photonics Reviewsto the scientific fundamentals of laser material processing.

Thomas GrafStuttgart, November 2007

Thomas Graf is Head of the Institut fur Strahlwerkzeuge(IFSW) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany

Thomas Graf received the physicsM. Sc. degree in 1993 and the Ph. D.degree in 1996 from the Univer-sity of Bern, Switzerland. As a post-doctoral research associate he wasengaged in research on high-powersolid-state lasers with high beamquality, beam shaping for diode-laser bars, and thermodynamics of

optical systems at the University of Bern until 1997. Hethen joined the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow,Scotland (UK) where he was engaged in research onnonlinear optics and passively mode-locked multi-Wattall-solid-state lasers. In April 1999 he was appointedhead of the High-Power Lasers and Material ScienceGroup at the Laser Department of the Institute of Ap-plied Physics, University of Bern (Switzerland) wherehe was awarded the venia docendi in 2001 and wherehe was nominated assistant professor in April 2002. InJune 2004 he was appointed university professor anddirector of the Institut fuer Strahlwerkzeuge (IFSW)at the University of Stuttgart. He is currently engagedin high-power all-solid-state laser systems, laser beamshaping and laser applications in manufacturing.In 2001 Prof. Graf was awarded the Knowledge-Transfer Prize (InnoBe AG and DC Bank, Bern) forthe development of self-adaptive thermo-optical laserresonators and the NETS Prize (New Entrepreneurs inTechnology and Science, Gebert-Ruf Foundation) forhis engagement in technology transfer. In 1998 he re-ceived the Applied Physics Prize from the Swiss Phys-ical Society and he was granted the Physics Award ofthe Faculty of Science of the University of Bern for hisdissertation in 1996.

c© 2007 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim