Published on Oct 06 2023: French physicist Pierre Agostini, 2023 Nobel laureate in physics, “regrets” having been forced to retire in France about two decades ago when he was “still full of energy” and moving to the United States to continue his work.
This specialist in attosecond science – one billionth of one billionth of a second – was more than surprised to be awarded the most prestigious of prizes on Tuesday, alongside Franco-Swede Anne L’Huillier and Austro-Hungarian Ferenc Krausz.
“I learned it from my daughter,” said 82-year-old Pierre Agostini, who has returned to live in France. Shortly after the Nobel announcement in Stockholm on Tuesday at noon, “she called me to ask if it was true that I had received it!”
“At first, it was a surprise, I didn’t really believe it. I finally believed it when a member of the Nobel committee called me in the afternoon,” said the scientist with a resemblance to Einstein, dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a James Webb Space Telescope T-shirt, during an interview with AFP in his Paris apartment.
What will his Nobel change? “It will involve a lot of travel in the coming year,” he modestly replies. “I’ll have to go to Stockholm for the award ceremony in December, and maybe even earlier, to celebrate it in Ohio.”
Ohio State University career
Indeed, it was in the United States that the physicist ended his career as a professor in the physics department at Ohio State University.
However, he spent most of his career in France at the CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique). It was there, in 2002, that he conducted a decisive experiment to probe the ultra-fast dynamics of electrons.
At that time, he was not tempted to go to the United States because Europe was “at the center of this research.”
“Heartbroken to Leave”
But at the age of 61, he was forced to retire. “If we had enough years of contributions, we could retire, certainly with a bonus, but we still had to retire. I received a letter saying ‘thank you and goodbye.’ We had no choice at the time – now you can stay until you’re 70.”
“I regretted it a lot because I still had a lot of energy. I had everything I needed in France, access to cutting-edge equipment and experiments… It broke my heart to have to leave.”
He tried to join CNRS, worked there for a few months, but quickly stopped due to “administrative difficulties.” He then left France and traveled to the University of Laval in Quebec, the Netherlands, Germany, and more.
In 2005, he finally found a position at Ohio State University thanks to a “professor friend.” “Things were very easy there; there were no administrative problems. They managed to get a green card for me… I’m very grateful to them.”
Pierre Agostini taught there for about a dozen years before retiring in 2017 and returning to France. However, as a professor emeritus, he still has his office in Ohio and continues to oversee the work of students there.
He hopes that his Nobel will “motivate students” and boost research in his field of ultra-fast science, particularly in medicine.
The ultimate goal? To go even shorter than the attosecond (10 to the power of -18 seconds). “The absolute limit being 10 to the power of -43, the inverse of the total energy of the Universe.”
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