News

Ursula Keller wins “Swiss Nobel” Marcel Benoist Prize- for pioneering work in ultrafast lasers
MUST2022 Conference- a great success!
New scientific highlights- by MUST PIs Wörner, Chergui, and Richardson
FELs of Europe prize for Jeremy Rouxel- “Development or innovative use of advanced instrumentation in the field of FELs”
Ruth Signorell wins Doron prizefor pioneering contributions to the field of fundamental aerosol science
New FAST-Fellow Uwe Thumm at ETH- lectures on Topics in Femto- and Attosecond Science
International Day of Women and Girls in Science- SSPh asked female scientists about their experiences
New scientific highlight- by MUST PIs Milne, Standfuss and Schertler
EU XFEL Young Scientist Award for Camila Bacellar,beamline scientist and group leader of the Alvra endstation at SwissFEL
Prizes for Giulia Mancini and Rebeca Gomez CastilloICO/IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics & Ernst Haber 2021
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to RESOLV Member Benjamin List- for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis
NCCR MUST at Scientifica 2021- Lightning, organic solar cells, and virtual molecules

Nobel Prize winner Gerard Mourou

Physics Nobel Prize Winner 2018
Gerard Mourou, 74, now at the École Polytechnique in France and University of Michigan; together with Donna Strickland, 59, now at the University of Waterloo in Canada, invented a technology that led to the rapid increase of laser pulse intensity, which has allowed for myriad laser-based tools, including the beams commonly used in laser eye surgery.

Using an ingenious approach, they succeeded in creating ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses without destroying the amplifying material. First they stretched the laser pulses in time to reduce their peak power, then amplified them, and finally compressed them. If a pulse is compressed in time and becomes shorter, then more light is packed together in the same tiny space – the intensity of the pulse increases dramatically. Strickland and Mourou’s newly invented technique, called chirped pulse amplification, CPA, soon became standard for subsequent high-intensity lasers.

CPA is the essential tool that enabled the ultrafast science in the NCCR MUST. The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes the importance of this field for scientific research and industry.

A buffet lunch (12:00 – ~13:30 h) with Prof. Mourou in the Bellavista restaurant should give in particular PhD students and postdocs an opportunity to interact with our visitor. The rest of the programme will be organised by Ursula Keller.


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