The American Physical Society (APS) is the world's largest physical society. Since 2014, the APS has been awarding the Carl E. Anderson Division of Laser Science Dissertation Award, which recognizes outstanding doctoral research in the area of Laser Science. This year the award went to Edoardo Baldini, recognizing his PhD work carried out at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne under the supervision of Professors Majed Chergui and Fabrizio Carbone. This is the first time that the prize is awarded for research performed in a European institution. Baldini received the award at a special ceremony in Washington (DC) last September, during the Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science conference.