Anne L'Huillier received the L'Oréal–UNESCO For Women in Science Award (European Laureate) in Paris for her attosecond physics research.
On March 3, 2011, Anne L'Huillier was honored as the European Laureate of the L'Oréal–UNESCO For Women in Science Award, presented in Paris. This prestigious international program, established in 1998, recognizes outstanding women scientists across five world regions each year, aiming to promote greater visibility for women in fields historically dominated by men.
L'Huillier was recognized specifically for her pioneering contributions to attosecond physics — the study of processes occurring on timescales of billionths of a billionth of a second — and her work developing ultra-fast laser pulses capable of capturing the motion of electrons within atoms and molecules.
The award carried significant symbolic and practical weight: it provided increased funding and international visibility for her research program at Lund University, and it highlighted, over a decade before her Nobel Prize, that she was already recognized among the world's foremost physicists working at the frontier of ultrafast science.
This recognition came at a pivotal moment, helping to draw attention to the underrepresentation of women in physics and providing a platform that would later contribute to her nomination and eventual selection for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023. The award remains one of the most prominent international honors dedicated specifically to celebrating women's contributions to science.