Claes-Göran Wahlström succeeds Wolfgang Sandner, Max-Born-Institute, Berlin, who led the consortium and its evolution through several successive Framework Programmes of the EU, starting with the FP5 thematic network LASERNET in 2001. Meanwhile the consortium has grown to 28 partner institutions, comprising, together with subcontractors, 19 European countries. It has just started a new project period, funded by the European Union and ranging from 2012 through 2015.

His own research addresses ultra-high intensity laser matter interactions, and laser-driven particle acceleration in particular. Since 2010 he is an elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The hand-over took place during the General Assembly Meeting in Munich on October 25. In his inauguration speech, Claes-Göran Wahlström thanked Wolfgang Sandner for his achievements, having brought together two laser communities, the former “high-energy laser infrastructures” and the “analytical laser facilities”, and having led them to become a powerful network. He also pointed out the options for the further development of the consortium and his commitment to lead LASERLAB-EUROPE into a successful and sustainable future.

The LASERLAB-EUROPE partners congratulate Claes-Göran Wahlström to his election and wish him all the best for the future coordination of the LASERLAB network. They also thanked Wolfgang Sandner who will assume new tasks in the European ESFRI project ELI, the “Extreme Light Infrastructure”, the world’s first international scientific laser project. Claes-Göran Wahlström will be assisted in his new tasks by the Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V., the legal entity holding the LASERLAB grant agreement with the EC, and by the LASERLAB Berlin office, who both will continue in their functions.