Biography

Professor Marcis Auzinsh is a former rector of the University of Latvia ( 2007 - 2015). Currentl Professor of Physics and head of the chair of Experimental Physics. After completing his Ph.D. in physics (St. Petersburg State University in 1986), he continued his academic and research career at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the University of Latvia, taking administrative positions as a head of the Department of Physics (1997-2002) director of Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy (1998-2003) and dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics (2002-2007). From 1998 till 2007 he was the chairman of the Senate of the University of Latvia. Main research interests of professor Auzinsh are within Atomic and Molecular Physics, Quantum Optics and Laser Spectroscopy of Atoms and Small Molecules.

He has been a visiting professor in UK, Germany, Israel and USA, member of the Executive Committee of the European Physical Society and a board member of European Physics Education Network – EUPEN (Socrates Network). Prof. M.Auzinsh is a board member of International Physics Olympiads from 1996 and has membership in Latvian, American Physical Societies and Institute of Physics (UK).

He is the co-author of the monograph – Optical Polarization of Molecules, printed at Cambridge University Press in 1995 and reprinted in 2005. In 2010 at the Oxford University Press was published a monograph – Optically polarized atoms: understanding light-atom interactions which he wrote together with his colleagues form University of Californian at Berkeley. M. Auzinsh has published around 100 papers in the peer-reviewed journals. He has more than 130 conference appearances.