Ultra-intense and ultra-fast laser-matter interaction: foundations and applications

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"Science in the Pipeline" is the concept that more often than not it's basic curiosity-driven discovery research that supplies the ideas, the understanding, and the concepts which eventually make their way into innovation, commercial impact and social benefits. My research, with my team members, begins with the science of the interaction between extremely short pulses of intense laser light and matter. At its most basic, we're interested in how the relationships between light and matter change -- qualitatively, fundamentally -- in the case of the most intense light we can produce on Earth. The things we learn, and the techniques and tools we develop along the way, we're then able to use towards creative innovations, new applications in things like advancing the best of materials-processing, or developing new approaches to the treatment of cancer or less-invasive kinds of surgery for heart-valve repair. For our experimental work, we need access to the highest-peak-power lasers available worldwide, and we seek opportunities in France, the UK, the USA, as well as at home. Our theoretical work needs access to powerful multi-processor computers to run simulations, though we also work with pen and paper. For applications we use the same kind of ultrafast lasers, but downscaled to systems we can operate in my own laboratories. We discover qualitatively new ways to 'treat' materials and biotissues: modifying structure, changing functionality, mitigating problems and creating new opportunities, new tools, new approaches. This gives students of all kinds, and driven by different goals, an exceptional opportunity to develop their deep understanding in physics, medical biophysics and optics, while supporting their ambition to contribute to society in the most important ways they can imagine. "Des chercheurs qui cherchent, on en trouve. Des chercheurs qui trouvent, on en cherche." -Charles de Gaulle "Researchers who seek, these we find; researchers who find, these we seek." -Charles de Gaulle