The Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH) is by far the most successful experimental
research centre in Greece. The Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) is the largest (180 personnel)
of its six institutes. In the research activities at IESL, particular emphasis is placed on fundamental research
and involvement in high technology areas. The institute is centred around five subject areas: Lasers and
Applications, Materials (polymers, electronic, magnetic, and photonic materials), Microelectronics, Environment
and Theoretical/Computational Physics and Chemistry. Particular emphasis is placed on both fundamental
research and development of high technology: On the fundamental research side, the laser laboratories of the
Institute are involved in the experimental as well as theoretical study of a variety of phenomena related to the
interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter. Subjects include amongst others, experimental atto-second
pulse physics, spin squeezing magnetometry, and theoretical quantum-optics, condensed matter physics, BEC
and quantum computing. IESL recently received an ERC start-up grant for cavity enhanced parity violation and
a Marie-Curie Excellence grant for Bose-Einstein Condensation.
On the technological side, there is the development of novel industrial and medical applications of lasers and
optoelectronic systems. In addition, there is a significant technological expertise in the use of lasers for the
preservation of cultural heritage. Over the last 5 years, IESL-FORTH has realized and/or managed more than
100 industrial and/or biomedical projects, including several RTD EC projects. Currently, IESL is part of 24
competitive EU research project with a total volume of 100 MEU with IESL itself receiving 12 MEU. IESL
coordinates currently 14 competitive EU with a total budget of 54 MEU.