For the first time in 55 years, a female physicist has taken home the elite title of a Nobel Prize Laurette in this year’s awards.
It’s only the third time in history this has happened.
Donna Strickland was granted a share in the $1.01 million dollars after being named a Nobel Prize in Physics recipient for “groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.”
The Canadian professor was recognised alongside French scientist Gerard Mourou “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.”
The prestigious award was shared with a 96-year-old American, Arthur Ashkin who was praised for his creation of “optical tweezers and their application to biological systems.” Ashkin is also the oldest ever recipient.
In handing out the awards, the Royal Swedish Academy said that both of the parties’ inventions had “revolutionised laser physics.”
But just hours earlier, Italian physicist Alessandro Strumia of Pisa University was suspended after a presentation where he is claimed to have said “Physics was invented and built by men, it’s not by invitation.”
The last female physicist to be named a Nobel Prize winner in physics was Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963 and prior to that, the first recipient was Marie Curie in 1903.
“Obviously we need to celebrate women physicists, because we’re out there,” Professor Strickland said of her achievement. “It’s crazy – you do always wonder if it’s real.”
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