Rate My Professor Mette Gaarde

Mette Gaarde is the Les and Dot Broussard Alumni Professor and Boyd Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Louisiana State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1997, working under Anne L’Huillier, a 2023 Nobel laureate in Physics. Gaarde joined the LSU faculty in 2003, advancing to Associate Professor in 2007 and Full Professor in 2012. Her research in ultrafast atomic, molecular, and optical physics centers on probing and controlling ultrafast laser-matter interactions in atomic, molecular, and condensed-phase systems. She develops theoretical models for the production and application of attosecond and femtosecond pulses of coherent VUV and XUV light, at the intersection of ultrafast AMO science and extreme nonlinear optics. Key topics include high-harmonic generation in solids via imperfect electron-hole recollisions, transient absorption and reshaping of attosecond pulses, ultrafast charge migration in molecules, and filamentation of intense mid-infrared laser pulses. Gaarde utilizes high-performance computing methods such as time-dependent Schrödinger equation, time-dependent density functional theory, semiconductor Bloch equations, and coupled Maxwell wave equations.

Gaarde has published over 150 papers, garnering more than 11,500 citations and an h-index of 59. Notable publications include "Imperfect Recollisions in High-Harmonic Generation in Solids" (Physical Review Letters, 2020), "Solid-state harmonics beyond the atomic limit" (Nature, 2016), and "Introduction to Theory of High-Harmonic Generation in Solids: Tutorial" (Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2022). She has secured over $4 million in research funding from the NSF and DOE, including an NSF CAREER Award. Her leadership includes serving as Chair of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (2022-2023), election to the DAMOP Executive Committee (2015), co-authorship of the National Academy of Sciences’ 2020 Decadal Assessment on AMO Science, and co-Chair of the NAS Committee on AMO Sciences. Awards encompass LSU Distinguished Research Master (2024), Fellowship of the Optical Society of America (2014, for ultrafast UV/XUV sources), APS Fellowship (2011), and the 2015 LSU Alumni Association Faculty Excellence Award. An outstanding educator and mentor, Gaarde chairs Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics and involves many students in her research.