Date: Thursday, March 12, 2026
Time: 12:45 PM to 1:45 PM
Location: CHTM, Room 103 and Zoom
Speaker: Professor Jean-Claude Diels, OSE General Chair. CHTM, Physics and Astronomy Department, University of New Mexico
Abstract:
Contrary to popular belief, the world is not ruled by Donald Trump, but . . . by fashion. Great designers are constantly transforming feminine dresses (or un-...) at a whirlwind pace. Similarly, science is also evolving by successive waves, although at a slower pace, and the great designers remain in the shadow. The big difference is in the memory: the mini and maxi keep alternating with the regularity of the surf, while previous exciting discoveries have fallen into oblivion, as I will show with a few examples. It seems that not only NI has faded, but AI as well.
Biography:
Jean-Claude Diels started his career in Research constructing a CO2 laser as part of his one-year military service (too long) in Belgium. He went then for 5 years (much too long) as a Research Scientist in the fundamental Research laboratories of “Philips Gloelampenfabrik” in Eindhoven, with assignment to “do modern research” with “unlimited budget (which was soon exceeded). The next 3 years (way too short) were spent on Ph.D. thesis research on coherent pulse propagation in two level systems with Professor Erwin L. Hahn at UC Berkeley. An advice: when you have a good advisor, don’t rush to graduate – stick to him as long as he can stand you. After two years spent at the Max Plank Institute with Professor Fritz Schaefer, the colorful (usually covered with red) father of dye lasers, he got an appointment as Research Assistant – then Associate – Professor at the University of Southern California (“What??? I have to raise my own salary?”). After some experience at the “Centre d’Energie Atomique” of Saclay with Pierre Agostini (our latest Nobel prize) near Paris (not the Texan Paris), and before the collapse of the Center for Laser Studies at USC, he moved to the CAQE (Center for Applied Quantum Electronics) of the University of North Texas in Denton, where he stayed for 5 long years, interrupted by (a breath of fresh air) a sabbatical at the University of Bordeaux, France. He has been since . . . (much much much much much much much much too long) at the University of New Mexico, where he graduated (so far) 59- PhD students. He co-authored with Wolfgang Rudolph the graduate textbook Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena: Fundamentals, Techniques and Applications on a Femtosecond Time Scale and with Ladan Arisian of the book, Lasers: The Power and Precision of Light, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the laser, published 7 book chapters and edited a book on light filaments). He is the recipient of the 51st Annual Research Lecturer Award (April 2006), and of the 2006 Engineering Excellence Award of the Optical Society of America.
