Milestones and awards

1985 Establishment of a foundation under civil law by Aesulap-Werke AG, Tuttlingen and Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen
The first director of the institute is Prof. Dr. Rudolf Steiner
1985 Laying of the foundation stone
1985 Inauguration of the building by the Minister President of the State of Baden-Württemberg, Dr.h.c. Lothar Späth
1988 Visit of the Federal Chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl
1988 First publication on the effect of erbium lasers on hard dental tissue
1988 First test of an erbium laser on humans
1989 International Symposium "Lasers in Dermatology" together with the 5th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Laser Medicine (DGLM e.V.)
1990 Presentation of the Merkle Research Prize of the University of Ulm to Dr. Raimund Hibst (ILM) and Dr. Ulrich Keller (Department of Dental Surgery at the University of Ulm)
1992

Presentation of the first Erbium laser for medical applications at the International Dental Show in Cologne
KEY-Laser, KaVo. 
1992 Visit of Nobel Prize winner Prof. A.M. Prokhorov, developer of the first laser, from the General Physics Institute, Moscow
1994 Extension of the ILM to: Institute for Laser Technologies in Medicine and Metrology at the University of Ulm
1995 Visit of the Federal Minister of Education, Science, Research and Technology, Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers
1995 2nd international symposium "Lasers in Dermatology
1996 Discovery of exited by red light IR fluorescence as a method for differentiating caries or plaque from healthy tooth tissue; patent application
1997 Kaltenbach & Voigt becomes another founder of the ILM
1997 Wankel animal welfare research prize for Dr. Angelika Rück, ILM, and Dr. Karin Kunzi-Rapp, ILM, for establishing the CAM
1998 Market launch of the fluorescence-optical caries detector DIAGNOdent (KaVo)
1998 Presentation of the "Science-Industry Cooperation Prize" to PD Dr. Raimund Hibst, ILM, and Prof. Ulrich Keller, Department of Dental Surgery at the University of Ulm
1999 The University Hospital of Ulm becomes another donor
2000 Establishment of an endowed professorship by the company Kaltenbach & Voigt
2000 Prof. Adalbert Seifriz Prize awarded to the ILM and the company Orthopädie Walter
2001 Presentation of the first medical laser with fluorescence feedback (KEY3)
2001 Organization of the 3rd international symposium "Lasers in Dermatology
2003 Extension of the ILM building
2004 Opening of the Laser Therapy Center (LTZ) by the Minister of Economics Ernst Pfister
2004 EUFEPS - European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences Poster Prize for an ILM research team
2004 Medical Technology Innovation Competition of the BMBF. Award of the project "Caries prevention by femto-second laser technology (?)".
2006 ILM is selected as place of the day as part of the "Germany - Land of Ideas" initiative
2007 Scientific Forum "Optical Technologies for Medicine and Biotechnology" with Federal Minister Dr. Annette Schavan
2008 Prof. Dr. Raimund Hibst becomes head of the institute
2008 Citation Award of the Canadian Medical Physics Society for the most cited paper in the field of medical physics to PD Dr. Alwin Kienle, ILM
2008 T.H. Maiman-Preis für Exzellenz in der zahnärztlichen Laserforschung der Akademie für Laserzahnmedizin an Prof. Dr. Raimund Hibst
2010 Medical Technology Innovation Competition of the BMBF. Award of the project "ReversFix" (removable and reusable dental prosthesis) together with Prof. R. G. Luthardt, University Clinic for Dental Prosthetics
2010 Kaltenbach & Voigt resigns as founder at the end of the year
2011 Opening of the Core Facility "Confocal and Multiphoton Laser Scanning Microscopy
2011 Annual conference of the German Society for Laser Medicine (DGLM e.V.) with a symposium to mark the ILM's 25th anniversary
2014 Ausrichtung der "Internationalen Konferenz über Laseranwendungen in den Biowissenschaften" (LALS 2014)
2018 Establishment of the "Photonic Microsystems" research centre
2020 Alexander Hack becomes director of the institute