KFIP winners laud KSA efforts to boost technology

The winner of the King Faisal International Prize (KFIP) for science yesterday said that the Kingdom is interested in exchanging its experience in attosecond science and technology with the world.
Professor Ferenc Krausz, an Austrian scientist who shared the KFIP with professor Paul B. Corkum, research chair in Attosecond Photonics at the University of Ottawa in Canada, delivered a lecture on “Chasing and steering electrons” at the King Adbul Aziz City For Science and Technology(KACST) in Riyadh on Sunday.
Krausz, who works in Ludwig Maximillians University in Munich, has developed powerful techniques for generating intense and tailored laser light waveforms and has applied these tools for observing and controlling the motion of electrons on a time scale of attoseconds to femtoseconds.
His group was the first to generate single ultraviolet pulses at a duration of 80 attoseconds.
Krausz said cooperation with King Saud University in Riyadh on attosecond science and technology would eventually help produce computers that could work 1000 times faster than the present machines. Such discoveries could also help medics successfully treat terminal illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer disease, he added.
Speaking to Arab News, Krausz said he was honored to receive the award and the achievement was made through team work carried out by a group of devoted scientists.
He said that the prize represents international recognition for his work. “We want to open up new scientific frontiers to serve humanity in keeping with global advances,” he said, adding that he is interested in embracing young scientists to take part in his future efforts.
Paul B. Corkum also delivered a brief lecture entitled “Atto science: What we learn by converting photons into one.”
He said that KFIP is a “wonderful award.”
On behalf of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and defense minister, presented the awards to the winners at a ceremony held at the Prince Sultan Grand Hall at the Faisaliah Hotel recently.
Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, director general of the King Faisal Foundation, welcomed members of the royal family, diplomats, academicians, ministers, special invitees and senior government officials who were present at the awards ceremony.
Prince Sultan bin Salman, chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, head of the Crown Prince’s Court, Prince Bandar bin Salman, Riyadh Governor Prince Khaled bin Bandar and Deputy Governor Prince Turki Bin Abdullah also attended the event.
Each of the five prize categories consist of a certificate which is hand-written in Arabic calligraphy summarizing the laureate’s work, a commemorative 24-carat, 200-gram gold medal with a unique imprint for each winner, and a cash award of SR 750,000 ($ 200,000). Co-winners in any category share the monetary grant.