Elisabeth Giacobino

Elisabeth Giacobino (born April 2, 1946) is a French physicist specialized in laser physics, nonlinear optics, quantum optics and super-fluidity. She is one of the pioneers of quantum optics and quantum information. She graduated from Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI) and started working at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, where she has spent the majority of her professional career. Her PhD Thesis was on the "Study of Excited Neon Levels by Laser Spectroscopy without Doppler Effect". From 1969 to 1976 she worked as a Junior Researcher (Attaché de Recherche) at the French National Center for Scientific Research ("Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique", CNRS). Then, from 1976 to 1982 she worked as a full researcher at the CNRS. From 1982 to 1983 she was an invited professor at New York University. From 1982 to 2002 she worked as a research director at CNRS. From 2003 to 2006 she was the Director of Research at the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research. Then from 2006 to 2011 she returned as Research Director at CNRS. From 2011 to the present she is a Research Director Emerite at CNRS.

Research and contributions Elisabeth Giacobino has had a prolific career with over 230 publications and over 110 invited presentations in international conferences. Over the last 50 years, her research contributions has been to several areas of research. From 1970 to 1987 she worked on laser spectroscopy and Doppler-free two-photon spectroscopy in rare gases and alkali vapours, collisional effects, nonlinear effect and optical bi-stability. From 1985 to 1995 she worked mostly in quantum optics. In 1987 she demonstrated, for the first time, two-beam squeezing generated by a parametric oscillator. In passive semiconductor microcavities, she demonstrated, for the first time, the emission of squeezed light and correlated beams. In this line of research, concerning semiconductor systems, she studied intensity quantum noise in semiconductor lasers and explained how to reduced it. 2002 – Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur