A renowned French experimental physicist and Emeritus Professor at Ohio State University, Pierre Agostini is known for his revolutionary contributions to attosecond physics and strong-field laser physics. Agostini began his academic career at the Prytanée national militaire school, where he received his baccalaureat in 1959. Agostini was born on July 23, 1941, in Tunis, which is a region of the French protectorate of Tunisia.
He pursued his studies at Aix-Marseille University thanks to his love of physics there. Agostini earned a number of important academic accomplishments throughout the years, including a B.Ed in physics (licence d’enseignement) in 1961, a M.A.S. degree (diplôme d’études approfondies) in 1962, and a doctorate in optics in 1968. Multilayer dielectric filters for the UV spectrum were the subject of his PhD work.
Agostini began a great research career after completing his degree. He joined CEA Saclay in 1969 and worked there until 2002. Agostini worked alongside famous scientists such as Gérard Mainfray and Claude Manus during his time there. They collaborated to do ground-breaking research on multiphoton ionization, utilizing strong lasers. In 1979, they observed above-threshold ionization in xenon gas, completing their revolutionary discovery.
In 2001, Agostini and his team at CEA Saclay, in partnership with Harm Geert Muller of the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), accomplished a ground-breaking performance.
They created a train of ultrashort pulses lasting only 250 attoseconds using a sophisticated laser at the Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée. Agostini was able to properly quantify the length and repetition rate of these ultrashort pulses by utilizing the principles of interference through recombination of the ultraviolet pulses with the original infrared light.
Pierre Agostini wife: Is the 2023 Nobel Prize winner married?
There is no available information indicating whether Pierre Agostini is married or not, as his personal life remains undisclosed.
