PHYSICIST

Gérard Mourou

1944 - Today

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Gérard Albert Mourou (French: [ʒeʁaʁ muʁu]; born 22 June 1944) 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. In 1994, Mourou and his team at the University of Michigan discovered that the balance between the self-focusing refraction (see Kerr effect) and self-attenuating diffraction by ionization and rarefaction of a laser beam of terawatt intensities in the atmosphere creates "filaments" that act as waveguides for the beam, thus preventing divergence. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Gérard Mourou is the 242nd most popular physicist (up from 248th in 2019), the 904th most popular biography from France (up from 1,012th in 2019) and the 24th most popular French Physicist.

Gérard Mourou is most famous for his invention of the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) method, which has been used in the design of the laser amplifiers that are used in the third generation of the LIGO gravitational wave observatory.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Gérard Mourou ranks 242 out of 851Before him are Leo Esaki, Vitaly Ginzburg, Nikolay Basov, Arthur Ashkin, Willard Boyle, and John Cockcroft. After him are William Shockley, David Bohm, Satyendra Nath Bose, Ivar Giaever, Ratko Janev, and Anton Zeilinger.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1944, Gérard Mourou ranks 64Before him are Claudia Mori, Gennady Zyuganov, Rajiv Gandhi, Abdul Hamid, Harold Ramis, and Sondra Locke. After him are Mairead Maguire, Bernhard Schlink, John Rhys-Davies, Thein Sein, Princess Benedikte of Denmark, and Serge Haroche.

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In France

Among people born in France, Gérard Mourou ranks 904 out of 6,770Before him are Émile Borel (1871), Jean-Marie Balestre (1921), Theuderic II (587), Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (1974), Joan the Lame (1293), and Lucien Laurent (1907). After him are Charles Maurras (1868), Georges Rouault (1871), Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno (1764), Pierre Boulle (1912), Alix of France (1151), and Célestin Freinet (1896).

Among PHYSICISTS In France

Among physicists born in France, Gérard Mourou ranks 24Before him are Hippolyte Fizeau (1819), Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788), Paul Langevin (1872), Edmond Becquerel (1820), Edme Mariotte (1620), and Jacques Charles (1763). After him are Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932), Claude-Louis Navier (1785), Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (1754), Antoine César Becquerel (1788), Anne L'Huillier (1958), and Alain Aspect (1947).