Professor Paul B. Corkum

Paul Bruce Corkum received his B.Sc. in physics from Acadia University in Wolfville, NS, Canada in 1965, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, USA in 1967 and 1972, respectively. He joined the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada in 1973. He is currently the National Research Council-Canada Research Chair in Attosecond Photonics and Professor of Physics at the University of Ottawa.

Professor Corkum is a renowned authority on lasers and their applications. For more than three decades, he has been developing and advancing knowledge on how intense laser light pulses can be used to study the structure of matter. His research has consistently been characterized by a deep physical insight accompanied by elegant models and supported by highly original experiments, which led to major advances in atomic and molecular physics.

Professor Corkum’s innovative research and contributions to physics have earned him wide recognition. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of London and Foreign member of US Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America. In 2007, he was inducted to the Order-of-Canada. His other honors and awards include: Gold Medal of the Canadian Association of Physicist for lifetime achievement in Physics (1996); Einstein Award of the Society for Optical and Quantum Electronics (1999); Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada (2003); LEOS distinguished lectureship; (2001-2003); Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Golden Jubilee Medal (2003); Charles Townes award of the Optical Society of America (2005); IEEE’s Quantum Electronics award (2005); Killam Prize for Physical Sciences (2006); The American Physical Society’s Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science (2006); the Polanyi Prize of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (2007); NSERC’s Herzberg Prize (2009) and Zewail Award of the American Chemical Society (2010). He was also awarded honorary doctoral degrees from both Acadia University (2006) and the University of Western Ontario (2009) in Canada.

Professor Corkum authored more than 240 peer-reviewed papers, most of which were published in leading physics journals; he also edited several books and gave approximately 23 public, plenary or invited lectures per year. He mentored numerous M.Sc. and Ph.D. candidates, Postdoctoral Fellows, and visiting scientists in his laboratory. He also served for six years as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Physics B, became its Deputy Editor from 2009-2011 and is currently its Editor. He is also a member of the editorial advisory board of the International Journal of Nonlinear Optics.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.