Noble winner Anne L’huillier
OCTOBER 3. 2023
LUND
SWEDEN
LENGTH: 3:45
for Associated Press
STORY
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 to Lund Universities Anne L’Huillier, who has lived in Sweden for 30 years, but was born in France.
In 1987, Anne L’Huillier discovered that many different overtones of light arose when she transmitted infrared laser light through a noble gas. Each overtone is a light wave with a given number of cycles.
She got it with Pierre Agostini, USA, who in 2001 succeeded in producing and investigating a series of consecutive light pulses, in which each pulse lasted just 250 attoseconds. At the
same time did the third winner, Ferenc Krausz work with another
type of experiment, one that made it possible to isolate a single light pulse that lasted 650 attoseconds.
Together they have enabled the investigation of processes that are so rapid they were previously impossible to follow.
There is potential in how electronics behave in a material. Attosecond pulses can be used in for instance medical diagnostics.
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SHOTLIST
TOTAL OF FACULTY OF SCIENCE
VARIOUS AUDITORIUM
SOUNDBITE ANNE L’HUILLIER:
”I was teaching and my telephone is not on when I teach. But then during the pause, I actually picked up my phone and this is how I found out. But then I wanted to finish my lecture, so I just had it a little bit shorter. And so I asked the student to finish earlier and I think the guest. But It was fun. It was difficult to do the rest of the lecture, but, um. Yeah.”
PEOPLE CLAPPING WHEN ANNE COMES OUT THE DOOR
SOUNDBITE ANNE L’HUILLIER CONT.:
“I think it’s a historical first. I am the fifth, but the last three, including me. It’s quite recent. So I think that this bad trend is changing at the moment. There will be more and more women in the future, so I’m very pleased to contribute to. To be the fifth woman and that there will be more women in physics.”
SHE HUGS MAN ON STAIRS
SHE HUGS WOMAN
SOUNDBITE ANNE L’HUILLIER CONT.:
“This is a difficult question. I would say I never saw this moment. I just happened to participate in an experiment where we got the new results and were expecting it to end. Very interesting. And I and I wanted to continue working on it. And this is what I’ve been doing for 36 years. But it’s never that I thought at that time, of course, I didn’t have the insight that this would be so important, but so it arrives later, and by many, many steps though not only by me, of course, but by the whole community.”
PEOPLE EXCITED WITH LUND POSTER IN BACKGROUND
CROWD OF PEOPLE STANDING AROUND TALKING AND DRINKING
SOUNDBITE ANNE L’HUILLIER CONT.:
“I think that this field is going towards application both fundamental still, but maybe it will come to more practical and also some practical application. Practical applications are, I think, towards emerging small structure for the semiconductor industry. So it’s really starting there as a metrology tool. But more fundamental is to maybe in chemistry to look at the beginning of chemical reaction, maybe control it. We will see. This is more fundamental, but maybe it will lead to more practical application as well. But it is still a very fundamental field.”
ANNE L’HUILLIER STANDS TOGETHER WITH MAYBE HUSBAND AND SON
SOUNDBITE ANNE L’HUILLIER CONT.:
“I feel great. I feel like I haven’t landed yet. And, uh, this is a kind of a shock, emotional shock to get the Nobel Prize in physics. Absolutely great.”
OUTSIDE FACULTY OF SCIENCE
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