Littman earns award for laser technology

The Optical Society of America has given its annual Engineering Excellence Award to Michael Littman, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, for his work on laser technology.
 
The society cited Littman for "the development of the grazing incidence tunable laser and subsequent improvements including a geometrical scanning mechanism that allows for continuous single mode tuning with one moving element."

Littman, a member of the Princeton faculty since 1979, has recently contributed his expertise in optics to a multidisciplinary effort to design a mission to look for Earth-like planets in other solar systems.