Christeena Testimonial

" Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to attend the SFO Ultrafast Thematic School 2026 in the heart of the Alps at Les Houches. Learning advanced topics in ultrafast science while surrounded by such a breathtaking landscape was a truly rewarding experience. A definite highlight was attending the lecture by Anne L'Huillier (2023 Nobel Laureate) on the fundamentals of Attosecond Science.
I also want to thank the other esteemed speakers for sharing their expertise: Emmanuel Beaurepaire, Jerome Faure, Spencer Jolly, Dimitrios Papadopoulos, Thierry Ruchon, and Clara Saraceno. A special shoutout to the sponsor sessions for providing insights into the latest industry technologies. Beyond the lectures, I had the honor of discussing my research and sharing my poster with John Dudley. His feedback was invaluable !
More than just the science, it was the community that made this week special. From exploring new ideas with PhD students, post-docs, and research engineers from across Europe to snowshoeing through the mountain trails, the connections made were just beautiful.
My sincere thanks to the SFO - SOCIETE FRANCAISE D'OPTIQUE for organizing this event and to the CNRS for providing the grant that made my attendance possible. Finally, a huge thank you to the organizers and scientific coordinators-Florence Haddouche, Aurélie Jullien, and Marc Hanna-for putting together such a seamless and inspiring program. Grateful for the knowledge, the views, and the new friendships." 
Written by Christeena Paul (Phlam)

Review of the 2026 Thematic School.

From March 22 to 27, 2026, the École de Physique des Houches hosted the ULTRAFAST thematic school dedicated to ultrafast and nonlinear optics, bringing together international experts, researchers, PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows in this rapidly growing field.

Thanks to the contributions of the lecturers, participants explored fundamental principles, discovered recent advances, and exchanged views on emerging applications, ranging from pulse generation to their characterization, and covering spectral domains from THz to XUV. Driven by the rapid development of ultrafast sources, particularly femtosecond lasers, the event provided a comprehensive overview of the field and fostered rich discussions conducive to the emergence of new collaborations.

Organized by a specialized scientific committee composed of Aurélie Jullien, Marc Hanna, and the SFO, this edition was a significant moment of scientific exchange in a setting that was both stimulating and friendly.

Thematic school 2026

Ultrafast sources of coherent light: current research and emerging applications

The Houches Physics School, France, March 22 to 27, 2026

The workshop is devoted to bringing prominent scientists in ultrafast and nonlinear optics together with the goal of, starting from fundamentals, providing overviews of recent research work, covering emerging applications, and devising future directions in the field. It aims at giving to PhD students and post-doctoral researchers a broad coverage, from pulse generation and manipulation to characterization, from the THz domain to the XUV, and describe applications spanning from time-resolved spectroscopy to secondary sources of light and particles. The workshop is motivated by the current blooming of ultrafast sources and applications, triggered by the wide availability of robust and high power femtosecond lasers, and the rapid development of methods to convert them into sources with a wide range of parameters in terms of pulsewidth, central wavelength, or control over the electric field. It will be a unique opportunity to get a unified vision of this research area, and contribute to developing new collaborations and cross-fertilizing the sources and applications communities.

Thematic school 2026, ULTRAFAST

The Houches Physics School, France
March 22 to 27, 2026

Organizers of SFO thematic School
Aurélie JULLIEN (INPHYNI, CNRS, Université Côte d'Azur)
Marc HANNA (LCF, Institut d'Optique Graduate School - CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay)

Sponsoring - 2026 SFO THEMATIC SCHOOL

COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP OFFER | VISIBILITY OF YOUR COMPANY

ONLINE BOOKING FROM HERE

Contact sponsoring
Florence HADDOUCHE
Executive Director of the French Optical Society (SFO)
florence.haddouche@institutoptique.fr
T : 33 1 64 53 31 83

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