Irina T. Sorokina (born 1963) is a Russian laser physicist. She works in Norway as a professor of physics at the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

, and is the founder and CEO of spin-off company ATLA Lasers AS.

Education and career

Sorokina was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1963. Her father was a physicist who worked on the detection of the

cosmic microwave background In Big Bang cosmology the cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR) is electromagnetic radiation that is a remnant from an early stage of the universe, also known as "relic radiation". The CMB is faint cosmic background radiation filling all spac ...

in the early 1950s and by the 1960s had moved to nonlinear optics and lasers; inspired by him, Sorokina says that she "fell in love with physics, and optics in particular" by the age of 5 or 6. After earning a master's degree in physics and mathematics at Moscow State University, Sorokina completed a Ph.D. through the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

in 1992. In 2003 she earned a

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

TU Wien TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

in Austria. She was affiliated with TU Wien as a researcher and lecturer from 1991 until 2007, when she moved to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Recognition

Sorokina was elected to the 2007 class of

OSA Fellow The Optica Fellow is a membership designation of Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA)) that denotes distinguished scientific accomplishment. The bylaws of this society only allow 10% of its membership to be designated as an Opti ...

s "for pioneering contributions to tunable and ultrashort-pulse lasers and their applications in spectroscopy, particularly based on novel materials in the near- and mid-infrared spectral ranges". She is also a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, elected in 2009, and is a 2004 winner of the Snell Premium of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

References

External links

NTNU Laser Physics Group
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sorokina, Irina Living people Norwegian physicists Russian physicists Russian women physicists Laser researchers Moscow State University alumni TU Wien alumni Academic staff of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters Fellows of Optica (society) 1963 births