Interview with the 2023 Nobel Prize laureate in physics Anne L’Huillier on 6 December 2023 during the Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden.

What inspired your passion for science?

Anne L’Huillier: I don’t know exactly, it’s a very long time ago, but I was very much inspired by my grandfather on my mother’s side, who was a researcher and teacher in radio. During the World War II, he was working with the resistance movement, and he was helping them with communication. I don’t remember him very much because he died when I was four, but his story has inspired me very much, and he wrote many books that were at home. It inspires me. Then there is also something that I remember very clearly that was important for me, to watch the people walking on the moon. This was middle of the night, I was 10-year-old and it was very impressive. This I remember, and it kind of motivated me to go towards science and technique.

What do you enjoy about science?

Anne L’Huillier: I enjoy doing research because you learn new things all the time. This I like very much. I also enjoy teaching science, teaching young people. These both aspects, learning new things and teaching others, that motivates me very much.

Was there a teacher or a mentor that really influenced your scientific career?

Anne L’Huillier: Yes, several teachers have definitely influenced my scientific career, a mathematics professor at high school and then a little bit later, when I studied at university, very good teachers in physics, in especially atomic physics, inspired me very much, so I think that’s very important. I am thinking of Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and Serge Haroche and both got Nobel Prizes afterwards. They inspired me in their way of teaching, which is quite rigorous, but very pedagogical, and also to do both maybe experiment and theory. This little bit French school inspired me in my way to be a researcher and teacher.

How do you want your students to see you as a teacher?

Anne L’Huillier: This I don’t know. I just would like them to become enthusiastic with what I am teaching them, with the physics. This is maybe my motivation. Of course, they should learn, but they should also become like what they hear and become interested and enthusiastic. This is my aim.

How did you feel when you found out about the award?

Anne L’Huillier: When I received the telephone call not very much because at that time, I was struggling between what should I do, because I had my class waiting for me after the paus, and the Nobel Committee and the Nobel organisation were asking me to stay on the phone. I was a little bit struggling, what should I do? Then I said, No, I want to go back to my class. I agreed with them that I would finish the class 15 minutes earlier so that I could be part of the press conference. This is what I did, but they agreed to that. I think the whole thing with students became very, very nice and it just happened like that. That is nothing we planned obviously. This was very nice because somehow these students – and it was many students, about a hundred – became part of my Nobel Prize, if you see what I mean. The day afterwards, I also had a lecture. I started lecturing as usual, but then during the pause, again they came with an enormous flower … What is that in English? Flower bouquet, and they said, You have gotten many flowers, but we hope this is the largest. And it actually was. It was so nice from them, it was very, very touching, so for me the student response to that is going to stay in my memory forever.

Do you think it’s important that science is an international discipline?

Anne L’Huillier: Yes, it is. Absolutely and it’s remarkable that the oldest three physics laureates, we have all moved. For me, it’s from France to Sweden, and my colleague Pierre Agostini from France to the United States, Ferenc Krausz, it’s Hungary, Austria, Germany. This really shows that science is international and open, and I think this is extremely important. I think it influenced my life very much. I cannot really say what is the difference compared to if I had stayed, but to move country in general is making your life kind of richer. For me, it was a difficult decision on the professional point of view when I moved. But in the end, it became so good in looking at the facit. It was a very good decision, even on professional point of view, to move. I would encourage the young people not to be afraid to do that.

When failure strikes, what do you do to move forward?

Anne L’Huillier: When you fail, it’s about being obstinate and to continue. This is a quality that you need to have if you want to do research, to be obstinate and to never give up. That’s essential.

What advice do you give to your students about failure?

Anne L’Huillier: I’m just trying to tell them that the normal thing is failure. It’s not, success it is failure. I’m trying to show them examples and I guess this is how it is, but at the same time, I’m trying to motivate them and to say, Okay, but maybe this did not completely fail, you have this result that still is the coming through. There is nothing black and white, so even if something’s not exactly what you want, but maybe this is also interesting. That’s what I’m trying to do.

How do you support the students in your lab?

Anne L’Huillier: First of all, the way we do research in my group, it’s never one student on a project. It’s always a group of students. The basic idea is that the little bit senior PhD student is teaching the junior PhD students. I’m trying to … so that everyone does not feel inadequate. For example, the first year you are a PhD student, I’m telling the student I don’t have any expectation from you, just learn, try to learn how it works. I don’t expect any result, just learn how things work. I’m trying to reduce the pressure on all of the students so that they feel that they learn and they come up to speed and try to make them feel good.

What advice would you give to a student or young researcher?

Anne L’Huillier: This is a difficult question. I’m going to answer a little bit differently. What I’m trying to get from my students is actually a motivation from them. I think that a successful scientist, whether it’s in academia or industry, should have the motivation by himself or herself. This is what I’m trying to get from the students, that they are motivated for what they’re doing. This needs a little bit of time and care, so I’m not, I’m never pressing my students for example to work more, it should come from themselves. So that’s the idea.

What qualities make a good scientist?

Anne L’Huillier: I think you, again, you need to be motivated and to be a little bit passionate, I think that’s important. I think you need to be obstinate, it is also very important, not to give up because something fails or because you don’t know where it’s going. Then I think for me science is not only working with machines and gas or lasers, it’s working with people. To build up a good research group and to have a good relation with your colleagues and the students. This is also very important. Finally, I believe that in communication, teaching and research goes hand in hand. I think it’s important that the researcher can teach what they are doing and this communication with students is important.

What skill has been particularly important to your career?

Anne L’Huillier: This is the thing I like to use, and that’s the word intuition. To be a scientist is about following my intuition. I think for me, to follow my intuition has been something I have done the whole life without having real reasons or a scientific reason, maybe from when I was a child. Why did I do science? Maybe I was motivated, but I followed my intuition. This is maybe a little bit with this obstination, why I was obstinate to do that. I followed my intuition. Why did I continue to look at harmonic generation although my boss at the time was telling me, Oh, you should do something else, this is not leading anywhere. It’s not that I had a vision that, Oh, it’ll lead to attosecond pulses, or, This is very interesting. It’s not, because I was not finished with doing research, and I was following my intuition. This is something I would like to tell the young people: follow your intuition in life.

Do you prefer research or teaching?

Anne L’Huillier: I like both, it depends a little bit. I like research very much, but I like teaching very much, I could not do only one. Moving from France to Sweden also meant that I changed from a research institute with no teaching to a university with teaching, and this was a discovery. It was really wow, so fun it is to teach. I think it’s about communication, to communicate your enthusiasm to students, and it could be also to other researchers. This is something I like to do very much. Research of course requires all the skill, which is to go to the depths of something, to be able to analyze new experiments in the right way, to have ideas – maybe when you see something a bit new, different, to realize that this might be important. Research of course requires different skills.

Why is diversity in science important?

Anne L’Huillier: I think it’s very important. First of all I would like to stress that very often new ideas don’t come. Of course, you can have your own ideas that pop up, but very often it’s a group, it’s within a group discussion. You have people discussing, and then someone says something and another one get an idea and say something, a third person is kind of putting two things together. Often, and I have seen that many times, it’s a group discussion, and the more diverse this group is, the better. I’m coming to diversity here. I think here, it’s nice if you have people with different backgrounds that contribute to this process, with different educations and different backgrounds. Then when you do research, to have a good atmosphere in the group is extremely important. I think it is always better if you have a diverse group with people coming from different countries, different genders. This really helps to have a more dynamical group where people are happy to be in that group and to contribute and to do great research. So there I think diversity is important.

How do you like to spend your free time?

Anne L’Huillier: First, I work quite a lot, I can say that. What I’m doing in my free time is I am doing some tennis. I’m trying to get active. This is now, but a few years ago, I was at the family, my sons, at home, To have a family and, and taking care of the family was a big free time activity. I think to be a good teacher and scientist, you need to have a good balanced life. I don’t really believe in scientists just working all the time or sitting in the attic and just working. I think this is an image you find in books. I think it’s good to have a balanced life with a family, with a little bit of free time activities.

Are there certain environments that you think encourage creative thinking?

Anne L’Huillier: Yes, absolutely. This is what I’ve been trying to describe. You need to have a good social atmosphere in the research group and good discussions where people dare to express what they think, even if it’s maybe stupid, but then they express what they say, and no one is telling them, No, no, this is wrong. You need to have this freedom in the research group, and this is where creativity can come.

How do you maintain your own creativity?

Anne L’Huillier: This is a good question. For me, creativity is associated to interest and passion. If what we are doing is do we have new results that we need to understand, and it seems really interesting and fun to understand these results – this is where creativity is coming. For me, as long as I feel that what I’m doing is fascinating, interesting, I think I will still have a little bit of creativity to do research. I think this is the case for everyone. It’s not like you are creative, it’s like, Oh, this is very interesting, fascinating, I want to understand. This is where creativity is coming. That’s my interpretation.

Watch the interview

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