We report on the application or an evolutionary algorithm to a noisy, dynamic optimization problem in chemistry: the maximization of three-photon absorption in molecular iodine. An evolution strategy is used in real-time in a closed loop experiment to search the space of physically realizable phase-modulated femtosecond laser pulses. The probability of three-photon absorption is estimated by measuring UV fluorescence. With the evolutionary search it is possible to enhance the UV fluorescence by a factor of 3.4 compared to the most intense pulse.