Professional Affiliations

A pioneer and world leader in the science of ultrafast intense lasers, See Leang Chin has devoted his career to the study of nonlinear intense laser phenomena and the development of their applications. After graduating with a B.Sc. from the National Taiwan University in 1964, he enrolled at the University of Waterloo and obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Neil Isenor. He and Professor Isenor were the third group in the world to achieve multiphoton ionization of atoms.

Following his studies, Professor Chin joined Université Laval as a researcher, before becoming a professor in 1982. In May 1989, he co-founded the Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers with colleagues from the Physics and Electrical Engineering Departments. He also played a critical role in the creation of the Institut National d’Optique (INO).

In terms of discoveries, he was the first to experimentally confirm the existence of laser tunnel ionization of atoms and molecules with a CO2 laser, and in so doing, led the international community to accept a new explanation for a most puzzling experimental observation. Today, this breakthrough constitutes the physical input process that precedes all ultrafast intense laser processes in atoms and molecules. An internationally recognized leader in his field, Professor Chin has collaborated with physicists, chemists, theorists, laser engineers, biologists and defense scientists in Canada, the USA, Japan, Russia, Germany, France and China.