Gerard Mourou, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics in 2018 for his 1985 invention of chirped pulse amplification using lasers. This has resulted in an explosion of research using high intensity laser systems as well as numerous applications. I will discuss the development of the technology of short pulse, high power lasers from that time to the present - as well as the exciting research in high field science that this has enabled.