The Nobel Committee for Physics in Stockholm, Sweden recently announced the winners for this year's prize. Among the three recipients they selected, one holds the distinct honor of being only the third woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics. Donna Strickland acknowledges the historic enormity of her accomplishment and hopes that it might pave the way for more women to earn the prize in the future.
Strickland is the first woman in 55 years to win the Nobel Prize for Physics. The last woman to win the award, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, did so in 1963. Before that, the first woman, Marie Curie, won hers in 1903.
From the University of Waterloo in Canada, Strickland played a key role in the invention of a process known as chirped pulse amplification. This process, which utilizes the shortest and most intense laser pulses, has resulted in the development of new technology that is now utilized in laser eye surgery. Millions of patients now benefit from chirped pulse amplification, which involves stretching pulses in time and then compressing them in a tiny space in order to maximize their intensity.
Strickland admits that this technology required her and others involved in the project to think outside of the proverbial box. She admitted that most physics experts amplified and compressed the pulses first before stretching them in time. Her process, however, proved to be the most successful in terms of how it can be harnessed and used for medical and other purposes. As a result, she is now being recognized for her ingenuity with the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Despite being one of three women to win this important global award, Strickland notes that there are more women like her working in universities and other facilities around the world. She says that it is time for women like her to be recognized more often and hopes that her award will pave the way for more women to win the prize in the future. She also says that she is honored to be among the women in physics recognized for their efforts to the field of study.
When she was notified that she had won the award, Strickland said she was tempted to believe that it was a crazy joke. She had to take time to contemplate whether or not it was real. She was in disbelief that she had actually been chosen to receive the Nobel Prize in physics.
After reality set in, she quickly recognized the honor of sharing the award with her fellow physicist, Gerard Morou, who she worked alongside for more than 30 years in the invention of the chirped pulse amplification process. Morou is a professor of physics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He also works for Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France.
Strickland and Morou will both receive $500,000 in prize money from the Nobel Committee in Physics. Strickland also recognized the award's other recipient, Arthur Ashkin of Holmdel, New Jersey. Ashkin, who is 96 years old, is being honored with the award for inventing optical tweezers, which are capable of grabbing onto minute particles.
He is regarded as the pioneer of technology that utilizes lasers to manipulate physical objects. Strickland is happy that he is finally being recognized for his contributions to physics. Ashkin will take home a cash prize of more than $1 million.
Since the inception of the Nobel Prize in physics, the overwhelming number of recipients for the award have been men. Only two women prior to 2018 were chosen to receive the prize. Donna Strickland now makes the third female recipient of the award with her being recognized recently by the Nobel Committee in Physics. Her contributions to physics benefits millions of patients who undergo laser optical eye surgery. She shares her Nobel physics award with her co-inventor, Gerard Morou, and Arthur Ashkin.
