Margaret Murnane

Margaret M. Murnane
Born	(1959-01-23)January 23, 1959 County Limerick, Ireland
Alma mater	University College Cork (B.S., 1981 M.S., 1983) University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D., 1989)
Known for	Founder of the field of ultrafast x-ray science KMLabs Co-founder
Spouse	Physicist Henry Kapteyn
Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley (1989–1990) Washington State University (1990–1995) University of Michigan (1996–1999) University of Colorado Boulder (1999 – present)

Margaret Mary Murnane (born 23 January 1959) is an Irish physicist, who served as a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, having moved there in 1999, with past positions at the University of Michigan and Washington State University. She is the director of the STROBE NSF Science and Technology Center and a researcher in laser science and technology.

Her interests and research contributions span topics including atomic, molecular, and optical physics, nanoscience, laser technology, materials and chemical dynamics, plasma physics, and imaging science. Her work has earned her awards ^{[1] [2] [3]} including the MacArthur Fellowship award in 2000, the Frederic Ives Medal/Quinn Prize in 2017, the highest award of The Optical Society, and the 2021 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics.

Early life

Born and raised in County Limerick, Ireland, Murnane became interested in physics through her father who was a primary school teacher. She received her B.A. and M.S. from University College, Cork. ^[4] She moved to the United States to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her PhD in 1989 under Roger Falcone. ^[5] She is married to Henry Kapteyn. They work together and operate their own lab at JILA at the University of Colorado. ^[6]

Career

Murnane has co-authored more than 500 articles in peer reviewed journals, with her work receiving around 35000 citations. ^[7] She is a founder of the field of ultrafast X-ray science, having made contributions to this area of research in every decade since the 1980s. She has developed her university-based laboratory effort in collaboration with Kapteyn. ^[8]

In their lab, Murnane, Kapteyn, and their students make lasers whose beams flash like a strobe light – except that each flash is a trillion times faster. These lasers, like camera flashes, make it possible to record the motions of atoms in chemical reactions, and of atoms and electrons in materials systems. Some of her lasers can generate pulses of less than 10 femtoseconds. ^[9] The very high peak power of these ultrashort laser pulses makes it possible to coherently upconvert light to much shorter wavelengths, in the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray region of the spectrum. This high harmonic generation process makes possible a tabletop-scale X-ray laser light source.

Murnane explored the use of femtosecond lasers for x-ray generation and has made substantive contributions to many aspects of this area of research, including the understanding of the high harmonic process, the laser technology required to use this process to implement practical tabletop light sources for applications, and in applying this new source to make fundamental discoveries in areas ranging from basic atomic and chemical dynamics to materials dynamics, to nanoimaging. She is also a founder of the area now known as experimental "Attosecond Science", having performed experiments that demonstrated the ability to manipulate electron dynamics with attosecond precision. ^{[10] [11]} She is the co-founder of the laser company KMLabs, Inc., ^[12] for which Intel Capital is a co-investor. ^[13]

Honours

• 1998 Fellow of The Optical Society ^[14]
• 2000 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow ^[15]
• 2001 Fellow of the American Physical Society ^[16]
• 2003 Richtmyer Memorial Award Lecturer of the American Association of Physics Teachers
• 2003 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ^[16]
• 2004 Member of the National Academy of Sciences ^[16]
• 2006 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ^[17]
• 2007 Fellow of the Association for Women in Science ^[18]
• 2010 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science ^[19]
• 2010 R. W. Wood Prize, The Optical Society ^[20]
• 2011 Boyle Medal ^[21]
• 2012 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics ^[22]
• 2015 Honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin ^[23]
• 2015 Member of the American Philosophical Society ^[24]
• 2016 honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Uppsala University, Sweden ^[25]
• 2017 Frederic Ives Medal/Quinn Prize in optics from The Optical Society ^[26]
• 2021 Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) in Physics ^[27] (shared with Henry Kapteyn)
• 2022 Isaac Newton Medal, from Institute of Physics ^[28]
• 2023 honorary doctorate from the University of Salamanca, Spain ^[29]

Publications

• Popmintchev, T.; Chen, M. C.; Popmintchev, D.; Arpin, P.; Brown, S.; Ališauskas, S.; Andriukaitis, G.; Balčiūnas, T.; Mücke, O. D.; Pugzlys, A.; Baltuška, A.; Shim, B.; Schrauth, S. E.; Gaeta, A.; Hernández-García, C.; Plaja, L.; Becker, A.; Jaron-Becker, A.; Murnane, M. M.; Kapteyn, H. C. (2012). "Bright coherent ultrahigh harmonics in the keV x-ray regime from mid-infrared femtosecond lasers". Science. 336 (6086): 1287–1291. doi:10.1126/science.1218497. PMID   22679077 . Retrieved 19 February 2026.
• Rundquist, A.; Durfee III, C. G.; Chang, Z.; Herne, C.; Backus, S.; Murnane, M. M.; Kapteyn, H. C. (1998). "Phase-matched generation of coherent soft X-rays". Science. 280 (5368): 1412–1415. doi:10.1126/science.280.5368.1412. PMID   9624047 . Retrieved 19 February 2026.
• Chang, Z.; Rundquist, A.; Wang, H.; Murnane, M. M.; Kapteyn, H. C. (1997). "Generation of coherent soft X rays at 2.7 nm using high harmonics". Physical Review Letters. 79 (16): 2967–2970. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.2967 . Retrieved 19 February 2026.

References

1. "Murnane, Margaret M." National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
2. "1990 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
3. "1997 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
4. "1997 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
5. Fiez, Terry (18 March 2021). "Margaret Murnane". American Institute of Physics. Retrieved 17 February 2026. Interview with Margaret Murnane (professor of physics at University of Colorado Boulder, JILA fellow, NSF STROBE director.
6. Davis, T. H. (2006). "Profile of Margaret M. Murnane". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (36): 13276–13278. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10313276D. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0606322103 . PMC   1569154 . PMID   16938855.
7. "Margaret Murnane Google Scholar profile". University of Colorado at Boulder. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
8. "About the Kapteyn-Murnane Group". JILA. University of Colorado Boulder & NIST. Retrieved 17 February 2026. Describes joint research in ultrafast coherent EUV and X-ray beams, quantum materials, etc.
9. "Laser pioneer Margaret Murnane bags 2022 Isaac Newton Medal and Prize". Physics World. 25 October 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2026. Murnane and colleagues created a titanium-doped sapphire laser generating pulses lasting less than 10 femtoseconds.
10. Chang, Z.; Rundquist, A.; Wang, H.; Christov, I.; Kapteyn, H. C.; Murnane, M. M. (1998). "Temporal phase control of soft-x-ray harmonic emission". Physical Review A. 58 (1): R30–R33. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.58.R30.
11. Bartels, R.; et al. (2000). "Shaped-pulse optimization of coherent emission of high-harmonic soft X-rays". Nature. 406 (6792): 164–166. doi:10.1038/35018029.
12. "Founders and Leadership Team". KMLABS.
13. "Intel backs KMLabs' ultrafast laser development".
14. "Margaret M. Murnane". Optica. Retrieved 17 February 2026. Fellow - 1998
15. "Margaret Murnane". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
16. "Murnane". JILA, University of Colorado Boulder. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
17. "Margaret Mary Murnane". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 February 2026. Elected 2006. Specialty: Physics. Professor of Physics; Fellow, JILA.
18. "CU Professor Margaret Murnane Honored By National Women's Science Organization". University of Colorado at Boulder. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
19. Talbott, Clint (12 February 2010). "Ultra-fast laser research wins top prize". www.colorado.edu. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
20. "R. W. Wood Prize". Optica. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
21. Boyle Medal Laureates Archived 2 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine Royal Dublin Society
22. "The 2012 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics: Margaret M. Murnane". The Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
23. "Registrar : Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland". www.tcd.ie. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
24. "Murnane elected to American Philosophical Society". CU Connections. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
25. "Three new honorary doctorates in Science and Technology – Uppsala University, Sweden". uu.se. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
26. "Professor Margaret Murnane Wins Highest Medal from The Optical Society". Physics. 20 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
27. "Margaret M. Murnane". 25 January 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
28. Banks, Michael (25 October 2022). "Laser pioneer Margaret Murnane bags 2022 Isaac Newton Medal and Prize". Physics world. IOP. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
29. "Margaret Murnane and Antonio Colinas new Doctors Honoris Causa from USAL". 22 June 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2026.