The first Nobel Prizes took place in 1901, five years after Swedish businessman Alfred Nobel passed away, leaving his fortune awarded in the form of prizes to those who excelled in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and peace. The winners are selected by the five-person committee referred to as the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

In 2018, professor and member of the Haut-collège of École Polytechnique Gérard Mourou and optical physicist Donna Strictland won the Nobel Prize for physics for their Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) technique created 30 years ago. This technique first stretches laser pulses to reduce the impact, then amplifies and compresses them, and became standard for high-intensity lasers.

To commemorate his father’s accomplishment, Marou Chocolate founder Vincent Mourou designed a special bar just for him with the help of co-founder Sam Maruta and Rice Creative partner and long-life friend, Joshua Breidenbach.