Woman wins Nobel in Physics after 55 years
Stockhom, Oct. 2: Donna Strickland, from Canada, has become the third woman to win a Nobel prize in physics in the history of the awards. The two other women who won the award earlier are Marie Curie, in 1903, and Maria Goeppert- Mayer, in 1963
The award comes close on the heels of a physicist who gave a “highly offensive” lecture at the Cern particle physics laboratory in Geneva. He had said that physics was “built by men” and that male scientists were being discriminated against. Before Strickland and Mourou’s pioneering work, the peak power of laser pulses was limited because, when cranked up to high intensities, they would destroy the material used for amplifying its energy.
Reacting to her win, Dr Strickland, who is based at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said: “First of all you have to think it’s crazy, so that was my first thought. And you do always wonder if it's real. As far as sharing it with Gerard, of course he was my supervisor and mentor and he has taken CPA ( Chirped Pulse Amplification) to great heights so he definitely deserves this award. And I’m so happy Art Ashkin also won.”
She added: “I think that he made so many discoveries early on that other people have done great things with that it's fantastic that he is finally recognised.”
G e r m a n - b o r n American physicist Maria Goeppert- Mayer, the last woman to win the physics prize, was honoured for discoveries about the nuclei of atoms.