Mandel was the Lee DuBridge Professor Emeritus of Physics and Optics at the University of Rochester when he died at the age of 73 at his home in Pittsford, New York.
Mandel published over 260 scientific papers dealing with problems of optical coherence, lasers, quantum interactions and non-classical states of light.
The award will be given annually and will recognize distinguished contributions to the foundations of statistical and quantum optics and applications to advanced technologies.
As written by Jeff Kimble and Emil Wolf in Physics Today:[2] Mandel is widely credited as being one of the founding fathers of the field of quantum optics.
Although he made seminal contributions across most of quantum optics, the central theme of his research was the exploration of the nature of light through insightful theoretical analyses and a set of pioneering experiments that have become landmarks in the field.