Description

Ferenc Krausz, born in Hungary in 1962, is a distinguished physicist renowned for his pioneering contributions to attosecond science.

Krausz completed his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, where he also earned his Ph.D. in 1991. He began his academic career at the same institution, quickly establishing a reputation in ultrafast laser science. In 1999, Krausz moved to the Vienna University of Technology, where his team produced the first attosecond light pulse in 2001, a groundbreaking achievement that enabled the observation of electron dynamics on their natural timescale.

In 2003, Krausz became a founding director of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany. There, he further advanced attosecond technology and applied it to study fundamental processes in atoms, molecules, and solids. His research has profound implications for both basic science and potential practical applications in fields like medical imaging and electronics.

Krausz's work has earned him numerous prestigious awards, including the Otto Hahn Prize in 2013 and the King Faisal International Prize in Science in 2022. He was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023, which he shared with Pierre Agostini and Anne L’Huillier for their work on experimental methods generating attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.

Engraver: Balázs Bitó