Professor Anne L'Huillier is awarded the medal for developing new laser techniques for generating ultra-short light pulses, and studies of ultrafast physical processes in atoms and matter. Her frontline research has increased the understanding of the dynamics of electrons in atoms and matter on the attosecond scale with applications in electronics, chemical reactions and nanotechnology, among others.
"I think I have a valuable position as a role model. It is important to inspire the younger generation. Especially young girls.”, Anne L’Huillier says in IVA's press release.
IVA's Great Gold Medal is awarded to someone who has performed a particularly outstanding deed in the Academy's field of activity.
Anne L’Huillier was born in 1958 in Paris, France. She pursued her doctoral studies at the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA) and defended her thesis, “Multielectron multiphoton ionization of atoms,” at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in 1986. She moved to Sweden in 1994, became an Associate Professor at Lund University in 1995, and was appointed Professor in Physics there two years later.
Anne L’Huillier has been a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA) since 2004 and a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) since 2012.
In 2023, Anne L’Huillier was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics together with researchers Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz.