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09 February 2022
Three Optica Fellows share the 2022 Wolf Prize in Physics
Optica congratulates Ferenc Krausz, Paul Corkum and Anne L’Huillier
WASHINGTON—Optica, advancing optics and photonics worldwide, congratulates Fellows Ferenc Krausz, Paul Corkum and Anne L’Huillier, winners of the 2022 Wolf Prize in Physics. The Wolf Prize, awarded by the Wolf Foundation, is highly prestigious and celebrates exceptional achievements in the sciences. Krausz, Corkum and L’Huillier receive the prize “for pioneering and novel work in the fields of ultrafast laser science and attosecond physics and for demonstrating time-resolved imaging of electron motion in atoms, molecules, and solids.”
“The Wolf Prize in Physics is widely considered one of the most prestigious awards in the field, second only to the Nobel Prize,” says Elizabeth Rogan, Optica CEO. “We at Optica congratulate Drs. Krausz, Corkum and L’Huillier for this achievement and acknowledge their contributions to ultrafast laser science.
First created in 1978, the Wolf Prize “is awarded to outstanding scientists and artists from around the world, (regardless of nationality, race, color, religion, sex or political views), for achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations amongst peoples.” Laureates are selected by an international jury committee.
In 2001, Krausz led a team at the Vienna University of Technology that succeeded in experimentally generating and measuring attosecond-long flashes of ultraviolet light, which marked the beginning of attosecond physics. Now the Director of the Attosecond Division at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Physics, Krausz continues to do pioneering work in the field, including using attosecond light flashes to make real-time recordings of electrons within molecules. He was elected as an Optica Fellow in 2009.
Corkum, a professor at the University of Ottowa, has been a leader in the field of ultrafast laser spectroscopy for three decades. He has contributed to the understanding of the field of high harmonic generation and to the creation of models to explain phenomena related to attosecond spectroscopy. He was awarded the Optica Charles H. Townes Medal in 2005, elected as a fellow in 2010 and received Optica’s highest honor, the Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Prize in 2014. He is also a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and of Canada, and a foreign member of the US, Austrian and Russian Academies of Science.
Lund University professor L’Huillier devoted herself to ultrafast laser science after participating in an experiment where high-order harmings were observed for the first time using a picosecond laser system in 1987. Since then, she has made significant contributions to the field, including becoming one of the first to demonstrate high harming generation, the process by which attoseconds form, and developing a theoretical description of the process. L’Huillier has been a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences since 2004, and has received numerous awards including the European Physical Society’s Prize for Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics. She was elected as a fellow of Optica in 2016 and received the 2021 Optica Max Born Award.
About Optica
Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica's renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement. Discover more at: Optica.org
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