A Canadian professor ended a 55-year drought for female physicists when she was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday, becoming only the third woman to ever win it.
Donna Strickland of the University of Waterloo in Ontario won part of the US $1.01 million prize, which she shared with Gerard Mourou of France and Arthur Ashkin of the United States.
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Sweden91裸聊视频檚 Royal Academy of Sciences, which chose the winners, said Strickland and Mourou will receive a quarter of the prize each for their work 91裸聊视频漡enerating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses,91裸聊视频� which have become a critical part of corrective eye surgeries amongst other uses.
The academy said their 1985 article on the technique 91裸聊视频� called chirped pulse amplification or CPA 91裸聊视频� was 91裸聊视频渞evolutionary.91裸聊视频�
The Guelph-born Strickland, who is an associate professor at Waterloo, told the academy she was left in disbelief when she got the call from Stockholm notifying her of the win, saying she thought it was 91裸聊视频渃razy.91裸聊视频�
She became emotional when told she was only the third woman to have won the physics prize 91裸聊视频� the first being Marie Curie in 1903, while Maria Goeppert Mayer won in 1963.
91裸聊视频淥bviously, we need to celebrate women physicists because we91裸聊视频檙e out there and hopefully in time it will start to move forward at a faster rate maybe,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淚 don91裸聊视频檛 know what to say. I91裸聊视频檓 honoured to be one of those women.91裸聊视频�
The University of Waterloo issued its congratulations to Strickland on Tuesday morning.
91裸聊视频淒r. Donna Strickland, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at #UWaterloo, is one of three scientists to win this year91裸聊视频檚 Nobel Prize in Physics. She is the first woman to receive this award in 55 years,91裸聊视频� the university said on Twitter.
A 2011 profile on the University of Waterloo web site says Strickland described herself as a 91裸聊视频渓aser jock91裸聊视频� who enjoyed the competitive rush, and was working on creating the shortest laser pulse with the biggest punch.
Mourou had been Strickland91裸聊视频檚 PhD supervisor and said he was thrilled at the win.
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91裸聊视频淚 am very, very happy to share this distinction with my former student Donna Strickland and also to share it with Art Ashkin, for whom I have a lot of respect,91裸聊视频� he said in a video released by France91裸聊视频檚 Polytechnique school, where he is professor.
91裸聊视频淲ith the technology we have developed, laser power has been increased about a million times, maybe even a billion.91裸聊视频�
Ashkin, of Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, developed 91裸聊视频渙ptical tweezers91裸聊视频� that can grab tiny particles such as viruses without damaging them.
Last year91裸聊视频檚 physics prize went to three Americans who used abstruse theory and ingenious equipment design to detect the faint ripples in the universe called gravitational waves.
Liam Casey , The Canadian Press
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