ParisTech celebrates 50 years of the laser

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the laser, ParisTech is staging a major event on 22 and 23 June 2010, chaired by the inventor of the laser Charles Townes, accompanied by six other Nobel Prize winners. The first day will take place in Paris at the Palais du Louvre and the second in Palaiseau, École Polytechnique.

The programme consists of plenary sessions for researchers and scientists, and a day dedicated to students, including a round table that will allow young people to interact with the Nobelists.

There is also be a series of public lectures on the laser at the Institut d'Optique Graduate School. This kicked off last week when Francis Balembois, Director of Studies, Institute of Optics Graduate School talked about, “The laser: principles and applications.” On May 20 Balembois will lead a tour of the Institute of Optics to showcase its research in lasers and on June 3 Philippe Grangier, Director of Research at CNRS Laboratoire Charles Fabry of the Institute of Optics and Chairman of Department of Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique, will give a talk on quantum cryptography.

Registration and programme information can be found at: http://www.laser50paris.com/