Her last visit to the School was on April 1^st, 2024, when she came to meet students, give a lecture on attosecond physics and take part in a round-table discussion on the place of women in science. On Tuesday April 29, 2025, ENS de Lyon was privileged to receive a visit from Anne L'Huillier, an alumna of the School and co-winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for her contributions to attosecond science alongside Frenchman Pierre Agostini and Hungarian Ferenc Krausz.
The French-Swedish physicist, professor of atomic physics at the University of Lund in Sweden, was in Lyon to give a lecture as part of the celebrations for Ampère's 250^th birthday and the International Year of Quantum Sciences and Technologies, and made a stopover at ENS de Lyon.

Visit to the XXELLES Science exhibition

Anne L'Huillier began her visit by exploring the “La Science taille XXELLES” exhibition in Lyon, in the presence of Valérie Castellani, the exhibition's ambassador for the Femmes et Sciences association, and Vincent Moncorgé, the freelance photographer who produced all the portraits nationwide.

Co-produced by ENS de Lyon, the CNRS and the Femmes et Sciences association, this travelling exhibition features large-format photographs of 20 women scientists working in a variety of fields, in both the public and private sectors. It is also accessible online, with a presentation text associated with each person represented. The aim is to put the spotlight on women in science, while giving an overview of the many possible careers in research, regardless of gender or level of study. An initiative welcomed by Anne L'Huillier, who was also honorary sponsor for 2024 of the "Sciences, un métier de femmes" day, an event co-organized each year by the Femmes et Sciences association to encourage high-school girls in the Lyon Academy to choose scientific and technological courses of study.

Presentation of Nobel Prize medal facsimile

Second highlight of the day: surrounded by a small committee of ENS de Lyon representatives, partners and PhD students, Anne L'Huillier emotionally presented a facsimile of her Nobel Prize medal to Emmanuel Trizac, President of ENS de Lyon. This replica will be framed and exhibited in the Félix Pécaut forum on the Descartes site of ENS de Lyon, in recognition of Anne L'Huillier's scientific career, but also to promote scientific careers to young people, particularly women.

"This medal is really a carbon copy of the Nobel Medal I received from the King of Sweden on December 10, 2023," commented Anne L'Huillier. "I'm delighted to be presenting it to ENS de Lyon, since I'm an alumna of the ENS de Fontenay-aux-Roses, and that meant a lot to me. These years lead to the field you choose and to the one in which I worked for many years. There are three copies of this medal, one at Lund University and one at CEA Saclay because that's where the first discovery on harmonic generation was made." (Translated from French)

Anne L'Huillier hands over a copy of her Nobel medal to Emmanuel Trizac, president of ENS de Lyon.

These words were echoed by Emmanuel Trizac: "Dear Anne, you are without doubt the most inspiring of the inspiring women whose portraits we have seen. May this medal inspire our current and future students in their future careers! And what about gender diversity? The co-education that you value as a guarantee of better research was only established a century after the creation of Fontenay-aux-Roses and Saint-Cloud. The first mixed competition dates back to 1981. This speaks volumes about the time it takes to change mindsets, and even more so, realities. We're a long way from the attosecond. Installing your portrait in this Félix Pécaut forum, 25 years after the construction of the Descartes campus, seems to us to be the right thing to do!"

Emmanuel Trizac also reiterated the importance of giving science and research the place they deserve in our societies, praising Anne L'Huillier's contribution: "By investing in the training of our young people, we must contribute to perpetuating the work of proof that is the work of researchers, and show their irreplaceable character. Our societies need it. Otherwise, what's the point of voting, however democratic it may be, if we don't share a common basis for what we call the truth? If I dared, I would say that you are a brilliant ambassador for this work of proof that is ours. This medal, whose reproduction you have agreed to entrust to us, is one of its most vibrant symbols."

Overview of ENS de Lyon and its partners' initiatives for young people

This solemn moment was followed by a series of speeches aimed at presenting the structures, schemes and actions set up for young people by ENS de Lyon and its partners, including:

• the Maison des Mathématiques et de l'Informatique, an original structure that offers a fun, participative approach to mathematics and IT through exhibitions, conferences and workshops;
• the AstroMaths camp, a free summer school that lets high school students alternate math and astronomy classes with field experiments as part of a group stay in Haute-Loire and Ardèche, on the Vivarais-Lignon plateau;
• Sciences, un métier de femmes! a day organized every year since 2017 by the Femmes et Sciences association to demonstrate that all scientific professions are mixed, thanks to meetings between high-school girls and women working in diversified technological and scientific fields;
• the mentoring scheme, offered by ENS de Lyon since May 2021 to research fellows or lecturers; people new to the laboratory; faculty members and scholars; and post-docs under contract. 

The morning concluded with a convivial buffet, during which Anne L'Huillier took time to chat with the various participants, including the doctoral students who had come to attend the event, before leaving for a visit to the Ampère Museum in Poleymieux-au-Mont-d'Or.