ELI celebrates 50 Years of the Laser

Date: 2010/06/23 @ Paris | Edited: 2010.09.06

Invited by ELI's coordinator Gerard Mourou, six Nobel Prize winner and other 13 important figures in the field of Laser's gathered in Paris, the City of Light, on June 22 and 23 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first laser demonstration by Theodore Maiman on May 16, 1960. On the first day the event took place at the Louvre and was devoted to the 600 researchers in attendance for the occasion.

The wife of Theodor Maiman, inventor of the first Laser, came to present this first "pocket-sized" laser, "the Ruby Laser", which emits a laser through a ruby crystal. The 95 year old Charles H. Townes, Nobel Prize winner in 1964, spoke out about his discovery of the first Maser (M for "microwaves", as opposed to the L for "light" in Laser) in 1954 and the progress made since in this domain: "the laser has truly transformed science and technology". "You must be open-minded and take risks," Charles H. Townes advised the young researchers.

On the second day, June 23, the event took place at the prestigious École Polytechnique that for this occasion opened its doors to the general public and presented scientific conferences, as well as educational sessions and activities prepared for several hundred young high school students from France and abroad. More information can be found at http://www.laser50paris.com/

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The first infrastructure worldwide dedicated to :

Investigation of laser-matter interactions in the unexplored ultra-relativistic regime.
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Nature, 446 (2007)

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