Margaret Murnane

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Dr. Margaret Murnane is a current professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and has been since 1999. Her interests are Atomic & Molecular Physics, Nanoscience, and Optical Physics. Her work with lasers has earned her multiple rewards^{[citation needed]} including the prestigous MacArthur Fellowship award in 2000.

1 Early Life
2 Work
3 Honors
4 References

[edit] Early Life

Born and raised in the countryside of Ireland, Murname became interested in physics through her father who was an elementary school teacher. She received her BA and BS overseas until moving to the US to study at the University of California at Berkeley where she earned her Ph.D in 1989. She is married to Prof. Henry Kapteyn, an avid physicist in his own right. They work together and operate their own lab in Duane Laboratories at the University of Colorado.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Work

Murnane has written or co-written approximately 130 publications in peer reviewed journals, with an average of 42 citations per paper. She build a laser that flashed for ten quadrillionths of a second - the fastest thing that any human being has ever created.^{[citation needed]} 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, shine a light that lets them record the motions of atoms in chemical reactions. Her newest laser flashes for less than ten femtoseconds.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Honors

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2007 Fellow of the Association for Women in Science^[1]
2006 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2005 Distinguished Alumnus Award, University College Cork (Ireland)
2004 Member, National Academy of Sciences (USA)
2003 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2003 Richtmyer Memorial Lecturer of the American Association of Physics Teachers
2001 Fellow of the American Physical Society
2001 Loeb Lecturer, Harvard University
2000 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow
1998 Fellow of the Optical Society of America
1997 Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award of the American Physical Society
1993 Presidential Faculty Fellowship of the National Science Foundation
1992 Sloan Foundation Fellowship
1991 Presidential Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation
1990 Simon Ramo Award of the American Physical Society
1989 University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship
1984 Regents Fellowship, University of California at Berkeley
1983 University Fellowship, University of California at Berkeley
1983 Pfizer Postgraduate Scholarship, Pfizer Chemical, Ireland
1977-1981 College Scholarship, University College Cork, Ireland