The winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics were announced on Tuesday 3 October. Among the lucky winners is Anne L'Huillier, a Franco-Swedish researcher honored with the French Pierre Agostini and the Austro-Hungarian Ferenc Krausz for their work on ultrafast lasers.
Thanks to this new distinction, Anne L'Huillier is now part of the still very (too) closed circle of women who have received a Nobel Prize. Since 1901, she is only the 5th woman who obtained this prestigious title. It follows Marie Curie (1903), Maria Goeppert (1963), Donna Strickland (2018) and Andrea Guez (2020).
This sadly low number is not the result of women’s less appetite for physics, but of what is described as the Matilda effect (https://www.sciencesforgirls.com/post/l-effet-matilda).
Although many women have not had their research awarded a Nobel Prize, many have made significant contributions to advances in knowledge in physics and all fields in general. Fortunately, some of them managed to break down barriers and make decisive discoveries like Anne L'Huillier.
Anne L'Huillier was born in Paris on August 16, 1958. Following her studies at the ENS de Fontenay-aux-roses and her aggregation in mathematics, she undertook a PhD at the CEA Center of Saclay and the Pierre and Marie Curie University. Her subject is photons, atoms, and molecules. After obtaining her thesis in 1986, she landed a permanent position at the CEA and continued her research with several post-docs in the United States.
In 1995, she became an associate professor at Lund University in Sweden and was appointed professor of physics two years later. Today, she still teaches at this university as a professor of atomic physics and was actually in progress when the Nobel Prize results came out.
With her work, Anne L'Huillier is the pioneer of ultrafast physics on the attosecond scale, that is to say, a billionth of a billionth of a second (10 -18 seconds). It is the smallest measurable unit to date.
His Nobel Prize follows his leading role in the first experimental demonstration of attosecond-scale light pulses at the CEA in 1987.
His research, completed by Pierre Agostini and Feren Krausz, revolutionized research on the study of matter and made it possible to observe the ultra-fast movements of electrons in atoms and molecules. Beyond physics, this discovery benefits other disciplines including chemistry, biology, and materials science. Significant investments are being made in the construction and operation of attosecond installations, making attosecond a promising field of research.
During her career, Anne L'Huillier has received several international distinctions such as the L'Oréal-Unesco Prize for Women in Science in 2011, the Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences in Physics in 2013 the Wolf Prize in Physics in 2022 to name a few. In addition to these awards, she was elected to the Swedish, American, and French Academies of Sciences.
One of Anne l'Huillier’s mottos is “Follow your intuition and your favorite subjects. Physics has never been as exciting as it is today, with so much to study and discover!” so why not you?
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Written by Aymane H.
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