The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three atomic physicists: France’s Pierre Agostini, Hungarian-Austrian Ferenc Krausz, and French-Swedish Anne L’Huillier for “experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter,” according to the award-giving organization.
“An attosecond is so short that there are as many in one second as there have been seconds since the birth of the universe,” the jury said.
The jury added that the trio “have demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.”
“The laureates’ contributions have enabled the investigation of processes that are so rapid they were previously impossible to follow,” it said.
Agostini is a professor at Ohio State University in the United States, and Krausz is a director at Germany’s Max Planck Institute.
L’Huillier is a professor at Lund University in Sweden and is just the fifth woman to win the Physics Prize since 1901.
She informed reporters that she was in the middle of teaching a lesson when she received the call from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and that it “was difficult” to conclude the lecture.
“I am very touched… There are not so many women that get this prize so it’s very, very special,” L’Huillier said.
Last year, Alain Aspect of France, John Clauser of the United States, and Anton Zeilinger of Austria were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on quantum entanglement, a concept originally derided as “spooky action” by Albert Einstein.
The trio will receive the 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1 million) award from King Carl XVI Gustaf during a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of physicist Alfred Nobel, who established the prizes in his will and testament.
The Physics Prize will be announced on Tuesday, followed by the Chemistry Prize on Wednesday, and the highly anticipated Literature and Peace Prizes on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
The Economics Prize, established in 1968 and the only Nobel not mentioned in Nobel’s bequest of 1895, concludes the 2023 Nobel season on Monday.