Dr. Paul Corkum

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Paul Corkum is co-director of the NRC-uOttawa Joint Centre for Extreme Photonics and a principal research officer in the Quantum and Nanotechnologies Research Centre. He is also a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Ottawa and director of the Max Planck-University of Ottawa Centre.

Dr. Corkum is a world-leading expert in strong field atomic physics and his ground-breaking work in the area of attosecond science is part of a strategic partnership between the NRC and the University of Ottawa to lead research and development in this emerging field. He divides his research time between the new Advanced Research Complex at the University of Ottawa and the NRC-uOttawa Joint Attosecond Science Laboratory.

Quick facts

• Known as the father of attosecond molecular imaging, Dr. Corkum gained international recognition when he proposed a method for producing attosecond pulses. Later on, along with Dr. Ferenc Krausz, he became the first to successfully produce sub-femtosecond (or attosecond) pulses, incredibly short flashes of light that allow scientists to capture the movement of subatomic particles and observe molecular reactions as they occur.
• His research brings physicists much closer to controlling the movements of electrons as they speed along inside molecules. This manipulation of electrons in attosecond time could lead to breakthroughs in fields as diverse as computing, engineering and medicine.

Awards and recognition

• co-winner of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences (2023)
• co-winner of the Wolf Prize in Physics (2022)
• first Canadian to receive the Isaac Newton Medal (2018)
• Royal Medal from the Royal Society of the United Kingdom (2017)
• Lomonosov Gold Medal (2015)
• Frederic Ives Medal (2014)
• King Faisal International Prize for Science (2013)
• Harvey Prize (2013)
• Royal Photographic Society Progress Medal (2013)
• Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering (2008)
• John C. Polanyi Award (2007)

Biography

Read his full biography for more information.