Patrick Mora (born 1952) is a French theoretical plasma physicist who specializes in laser-plasma interactions. He was awarded the 2014

Hannes Alfvén Prize The Hannes Alfvén Prize is a prize established by the European Physical Society (EPS) Plasma Physics Division in 2000. The Prize is awarded annually by the European Physical Society at the EPS Conference on Plasma Physics for outstanding work in t ...

and 2019

Edward Teller Award The Edward Teller Award (or the Edward Teller Medal) is an award presented every two years by the American Nuclear Society for "''pioneering research and leadership in the use of laser and ion-particle beams to produce unique high-temperature and ...

for his contributions to the field of laser-plasma physics. Mora is a research director of the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

(CNRS) and a professor at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in Paris, where he is also director of the ''Institut Lasers et Plasmas'' (Institute for Lasers and Plasmas).

Early life and career

Mora studied from 1971 to 1975 at the

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

. In 1975, he received his

agrégation In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''professe ...

in physics and in 1980 he received his doctorate from

Université Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (French: ''Université Paris-Sud''), also known as University of Paris — XI (or as Université d'Orsay before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, in ...

. From 1975 to 1982, he did research at the

Saclay Nuclear Research Centre The CEA Paris-Saclay (formerly CEA Saclay) center is one of nine centers belonging to the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). The Saclay site hosts the administrative headquarters of the CEA. Historically, it was the hea ...

and from 1982 for the

. Since 1989, he has also been a professor at the

. In 2001, he became director of the Center for Theoretical Physics and in 2009, the director of the Institute for Lasers and Plasmas.

Scientific contributions

Mora developed a widely used model of the interaction of

laser light A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

with plasmas in connection with energy transport in plasma and plasma hydrodynamics. With his colleague Jean-Francois Luciani, he also developed a

nonlinear In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...

and non-local theory of heat transport in a plasma via

electrons The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...

. This has applications in improving numerical simulations in laser-driven inertial fusion. With Tom Antonsen, he developed a model of the propagation of laser pulses in non-dense plasmas that revealed their tendency to self-focus or to display

Raman scattering Raman scattering or the Raman effect () is the inelastic scattering of photons by matter, meaning that there is both an exchange of energy and a change in the light's direction. Typically this effect involves vibrational energy being gained by a ...

. Mora developed a theory of the expansion of plasmas into

vacuum A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often dis ...

, which explains the flow dynamics and structure of the ion front. His theories are used to explain ion and electron beam acceleration experiments.

Honors and awards

In 1997, he received the

Paul Langevin Prize The ''prix Paul-Langevin'' is a prize created in 1956 and named in honor of Paul Langevin. It has been awarded each year since 1957 by the ''Société française de physique'' (SFP). The prize honors French physicists for work in theoretical physic ...

from the

Société Française de Physique The Société Française de Physique (SFP), or the French Physical Society, is the main professional society of French physicists. It was founded in 1873 by Charles Joseph d'Almeida. History The French Physical Society is a state-approved non- ...

. In 2014, he received the

from the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...

for "''decisive results in the field of laser-produced plasma physics, in particular for illuminating descriptions of laser light absorption in plasmas, electron heat transport in steep temperature gradients and plasma expansion dynamics into vacuum''". In 2019, he received the

from the

American Nuclear Society The American Nuclear Society (ANS) is an international, not-for-profit organization of scientists, engineers, and industry professionals that promote the field of nuclear engineering and related disciplines. ANS is composed of three communities ...

for "''his scientific contributions to laser-plasma physics, from laser from laser light absorption to non-local electron heat transport and plasma expansion dynamics, and for his inspiring spirit of community service''".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mora, Patrick Living people 1952 births French physicists French plasma physicists Paris-Sud University alumni Academic staff of École Polytechnique