>> On 16 March 2010, I have been awarded with the Umicore Scientific Award 2009 for my PhD thesis "Laser-Induced Femtosecond Magnetic Recording". At the official ceremony in Antwerp, Belgium, the prize along with a cheque of 10.000 euro has been awarded in front of an audience of researchers, academic staff, Umicore's management and representatives from government and industry.

>> Awarded with the First Prize for the best poster presentation at the NanoNed and MinacNed Symposium, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, December 6-7 2007, with the work entitled ”Ultrafast Data Storage: Switching Magnets by Light”.

>> Winner of the Best Poster Award at the IMM symposium, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, May 7-8 2007, with the work entitled ”Switching Magnets by Light”.

>> Author of the work entitled “Breaking the Speed Limit of Magnetic Recording”, presented in the Highlight of the Annual Report of the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) , Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 2006.

>> Winner of the Best Poster Award at the MORIS 2006 Workshop on Thermal & Optical Magnetic Materials and Devices, Tomiura, Chiba, Japan, June 6 - June 8, 2006. Poster title: ”Ultrafast laser induced spin dynamics in ferrimagnetic GdFeCo films”.

>> Winner of the Best Poster Award at the 50th Magnetism and Magnetic Materials conference (MMM), San Jose, California, USA, October 30 - November 3, 2005. Poster title: ”Temperature dependence of laser-induced magnetization dynamics in GdFeCo films: The role of angular momentum compensation”. (>>see the poster)

>> Laureate at the national phase of the Multidisciplinary Contest on Electronics and Electrotehnics, Cluj Napoca, Romania, 1998.