Professor Gérard Mourou, Nobel Prize winner in physics 2018, has recently visited Wrocław University of Science and Technology. During his visit, he met with university authorities and took part in workshops under the European programme ELI - Extreme Light Infrastructure.

The scientist is recognised as a pioneer in the field of ultrafast lasers and their applications in engineering and medical disciplines. In the field of ophthalmology, his work resulted in the IntraLASIK technology, applied in over 5 million patients.

In 1983, at Rochester University in the USA, he and his doctoral student Donna Strickland developed the CPA (Chirped Pulses Amplification) technique,   which enabled the amplification of ultra-short laser pulses to reach very high optical powers (PW - petawatts), consisting in stretching the laser pulse before it is amplified and then compressing it.

The method was a significant breakthrough in the laser technology of ultra-short high-power pulses.  It was for this development that Professor Mourou and Donna Strickland received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018.

At WUST, the scientist took part in a workshop under the European programme ELI - Extreme Light Infrastructure, an international project aiming to build a very powerful, 200-petawatt laser. More than 300 scientists from 50 research facilities in 13 countries are participating in the project, researching the interaction of light and matter at intensities 10 times higher than those currently available.

- ELI is a huge scientific investment organised in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. The "Godfather" of the whole undertaking is none other than Professor Gérard Mourou - says Professor Krzysztof Abramski from the Faculty of Electronics at WUST. - I have established cooperation with the Czech scientists participating in this project, and its effects include student exchange and the organisation of workshops for scientists willing to join the project - he adds.

During the meeting – apart from Professor GérardMourou - the ELI programme was discussed by Allen Weeks, PhD (ELI CEO), Georg Korn, PhD (Science and Technology Manager of ELI Beamlines), and Peter Dombi, PhD (Ultrafast Science Division).

During his visit to our university, the Nobel Prize winner also met with Professor Cezary Madryasem, Rector of WUST, Professor Andrzej Kucharski, the Vice-Rector for Cooperation with the Economy and Professor Andrzej Dziedzic, Vice-Rector for Education.

– I know you have very good students, as well as very good professors and researchers, at the University. It’s a great pleasure for me to cooperate with them - said Professor Gérard Mourou at the end of his visit.