Strickland gets Nobel Prize nod
University of Waterloo scientist first woman to win Nobel Prize for physics in 55 years for work with lasers
WATERLOO — It was 5 a.m. when University of Waterloo associate professor Donna Strickland woke up to a call from Sweden.
“They said to me, ‘This is an important call from Sweden, you must stay on the line. Please stay on the line while we transfer the call,’” the physics and astronomy professor said during a news conference at the university Tuesday.
Strickland stayed on the phone for more than 15 minutes, waiting because she’s a “rule follower,” before she hung up and checked her email.
Sweden’s Royal Academy of Sciences emailed, asking her to call back. That’s when she found out she was one of three scientists to win the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics, for her groundbreaking work in the field of laser physics.
The 59-year-old associate professor is only the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics — Maria Goeppert-Mayer won in 1963 and Marie Curie in 1903.
She is University of Waterloo’s first Nobel laureate.
The prize was for developing the “chirped pulse amplification technique,” described by the academy as “generating highintensity, ultra-short optical pulses.” The technique now has broad applications, including use in corrective laser eye surgery.
The Guelph native made the discovery while completing her PhD at the University of Rochester in New York and she will share half of the US$1.01-million prize with her doctoral adviser and co-inventor, French physicist Gérard Mourou. The two first wrote about the technique in a 1985 article.
Arthur Ashkin of the United States was the third winner of the physics prize for his unrelated work, developing “optical tweezers” that can grab tiny particles such as viruses without damaging them.
Strickland told The Canadian Press in an interview Tuesday that in the early ’80s if you put high-peak power into your laser, it would blow it up — high energy and short pulses couldn’t be combined.
Strickland, who had graduated from Hamilton’s McMaster University in 1981 with an engineering physics degree, said she and Mourou were well aware they were onto something in 1982 when they began researching ways to allow lasers to perform those high-intensity, ultra-short pulses without damaging the equipment.
During the CP interview,
We are still applying the technique that she co-invented in 1985.
KIM TUYEN HOANG Graduate student
Strickland recalled Mourou’s advice to talk up their accomplishment and tell their peers the gigawatt laser they had developed would lay the groundwork for devices a million times more powerful down the road.
“I knew he was right,” she said. “It just seemed very bombastic for me to say it in front of the experts of the world.” The prediction became reality a decade later.
Strickland was greeted by colleagues and students with a standing ovation at Tuesday’s news conference.
In the audience was 34-year-old graduate student Kim Tuyen Hoang, who has been working with Strickland for three years.
“We are very proud of her,” said Hoang. “She’s a very hard working, brilliant, talented professor . ... We are still applying the technique that she co-invented in 1985 in our current projects, so that is an amazing thing.”
Strickland, the self-described “laser jock,” said she never imagined she would one day be a recipient of the prestigious prize and joked that “very few people win the Nobel Prize, so why would you want to waste your time thinking about that?”
“Obviously I’m thrilled to win it ... but certainly it never entered my mind that it would,” she said.
She also reflected on her position as a female scientist — being the first to win the prize in 55 years. She said she cited Goeppert-Mayer in her thesis and reflected that the scientist who won the prize decades ago was not paid for most of her work.
Strickland said women have come a long way.
“I feel like I get paid the same, and I felt like all along I’ve always been paid the same and treated the same,” she said.
University of Waterloo president Feridun Hamdullahpur said Strickland has a true “passion for science” and that her work has been recognized.
Strickland has been teaching at the university since 1997 and oversees an ultra-fast laser lab.
When Hamdullahpur was asked by a reporter if the award means Strickland will become a full professor rather than associate, he said there was a process that had to be followed.
“There’s a governance process that has to be followed by everybody, including professor Strickland. But I told her that she doesn’t have to submit a very long CV — one line will be sufficient,” he said to laughter from the gathered audience.
Charmaine Dean, vice-president of research at Waterloo, said the school will be celebrating the prize all year.
“This gives a beacon for further conversations about women in science and technology,” she said.