Oct 052023
 

I don’t know much about attosecond light pulses but my wife and I did note that one of the recipients of this year’s physics prize was a physicist who studied just a year ahead of Ildiko at ELTE (Eötvös University). She doesn’t recall if she ever bumped into Ferenc Krausz, though.

And of course one of the recipients of the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine was Katalin Kariko, for her groundbreaking work in mRNA vaccines. Well-deserved indeed! I actually know (a little bit) more about mRNA vaccines than about attosecond physics, which might seem odd, considering that physics is my home turf, and organic chemistry is like an alien landscape. But the generation of ultrashort photon pulses is a very specialized field of study, to which I never paid much attention.

Anyhow, Kariko and Krausz are now added to that long list of scientists who were born, and studied in, Hungary, but who eventually ended up abroad, where they did the bulk of the work that earned them this recognition.

 Posted by at 7:03 pm