On Friday 26th of January, Prof. Gérard Mourou visited the ELI Beamlines facility. He is a French scientist and pioneer in the field of electrical engineering and lasers. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, along with Donna Strickland, for the invention of chirped pulse amplification, a technique later used to create ultrashort-pulse, very high-intensity (petawatt) laser pulses. He is also a spiritual father of the European research project ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure).
During his visit, he inspected the laser and experimental halls and gave an interesting lecture on laser technologies to the employees. Six young scientists presented to him their work and he gave valuable advice on further developing their scientific careers.
He also conducted interviews with several Czech media, including Czech Television. It ran the story here.
