The famous phone call reached Prof. Toshiki Tajima from – no, not Stockholm, but Paris. Nevertheless, the honor is big, because a representative of the high reputed Blaise-Pascal-Chair jury told him, that he is one of the winners. Toshiki Tajima was director of the highly respected Kansai Photon Science Institute in Japan and since last year guest professor in the physics department of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich.

France grants this prize each year since 1996 to a highly qualified, internationally acclaimed, foreign research scientist in all disciplines. They are allowed for at least 12 months to hold a chair and lectures in a higher learning or research institution in Paris/Ile-de-France. The Blaise-Pascal-Chairs have a high reputation in France and serve to strengthen the scientific community in France. Linked with prize money from the French top university "Ecole Normale Supérieure", the award winner has the financial support to do his own research on his preferred subjects. The prize is named after the French all-round genius (mathematician, physicist, philosopher, essayist, inventor and man of religion) Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), who developed among others a calculator, a probability theory, and theory of fluids.

Since autumn 2008 Prof. Toshiki Tajima is guest professor of the Faculty of Physics in the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich. He is supporting the cluster of excellence “Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics” especially by his theoretical works for the innovative approaches to generate highly energetic beams for medical applications. The physicists of the Munich center develop how to produce electron and ion beams by lasers for diagnostics and therapy of cancer.

Toshiki Tajima travelled to Paris on October, 22nd, to hold his first lecture for students and dignitaries. Famous as “Father of the laser acceleration” he will talk about high-field science and laser acceleration as a first of ten lecture series on related subjects. Feeling humbled, Tajima said: “That’s great and a big honor which I really appreciate very much!”