# Gérard Mourou

_French physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics 2018_

Canonical: https://diginpl.com/people/gerard-mourou
Last updated: 2026-11-01

> 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.

## Quick facts

- **Born:** 22 June 1944 ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q556543#P569))
- **Place of birth:** Albertville ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q556543#P19))
- **Citizenship:** France ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q556543#P27))
- **Occupation:** physicist; university teacher; researcher ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q556543#P106))
- **Education:** Pierre and Marie Curie University; Grenoble Alpes University ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q556543#P69))
- **Awards:** Knight of the Legion of Honour; IEEE Quantum Electronics Award; Frederic Ives Medal; Charles Hard Townes Award; Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis; R. W. Wood Prize; Lazare-Carnot Prize; Nobel Prize in Physics; honorary doctorate at the Laval University; Fellow of the Optical Society; IEEE Fellow; Fellow of the American Physical Society; Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science; IEEE David Sarnoff Award ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q556543#P166))

## About

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.

## Questions

**When was Gérard Mourou born?**  
Gérard Mourou was born on 22 June 1944 in Albertville.

**Where did Gérard Mourou study?**  
Gérard Mourou was educated at Pierre and Marie Curie University, Grenoble Alpes University.

## Related

- [Alain Aspect](https://diginpl.com/people/alain-aspect)
- [Albert Fert](https://diginpl.com/people/albert-fert)
- [Alfred Kastler](https://diginpl.com/people/alfred-kastler)
- [André Frédéric Cournand](https://diginpl.com/people/andre-frederic-cournand)
- [André Michel Lwoff](https://diginpl.com/people/andre-michel-lwoff)
- [Anne L'Huillier](https://diginpl.com/people/anne-l-huillier)
- [Charles Nicolle](https://diginpl.com/people/charles-nicolle)
- [Charles Richet](https://diginpl.com/people/charles-richet)
- [Claude Cohen-Tannoudji](https://diginpl.com/people/claude-cohen-tannoudji)
- [François Jacob](https://diginpl.com/people/francois-jacob)
- [Gabriel Lippmann](https://diginpl.com/people/gabriel-lippmann)
- [Georges Charpak](https://diginpl.com/people/georges-charpak)

## Sources

- [Wikipedia (English): Gérard Mourou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9rard_Mourou) — [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
- [Wikidata item Q556543](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q556543) — [CC0 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- [Image: Gérard Mourou, 2014.jpg by École polytechnique (CC BY-SA 2.0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%A9rard_Mourou,_2014.jpg)

## Licence and attribution

Text from the Wikipedia article Gérard Mourou, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Gérard Mourou, 2014.jpg — École polytechnique, CC BY-SA 2.0.

## Cite this page

"Gérard Mourou". DigiNepal. Last updated 1 November 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/gerard-mourou. Retrieved 6 November 2026.