McMaster University graduate wins Nobel Prize

A McMaster University graduate and professor at the Univeristy of Waterloo has been announced as one of the latest winners of the Nobel Prize for advances in laser physics.

Donna Strickland is the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize in physics, joining Maria Goeppert-Mayer who was honoured in 1963 and Marie Curie in 1903.

“We need to celebrate women physicists because they’re out there…I’m honoured to be one of those women,” said Donna Strickland.

Just in! Donna Strickland during an early morning interview for https://t.co/3VsHzjF7LK, shortly after hearing the news that she had been awarded the #NobelPrize in Physics.

Full telephone interview coming soon.

Photo credit: Doug Dykaar pic.twitter.com/bdb1HXQI9s

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 2, 2018

Strickland shares the award with Gerard Mourou, of France, and Arthur Ashkin.

Strickland and Mourou paved the way towards the shortest and most intense laser pulses created by humankind.

Their technique, known as chirped pulse amplication or CPA, takes a short laser pulse, stretches it in time, amplifies it and squeezes it together again.

It has opened up new areas of research and led to broad industrial and medical applications.

Ultra-sharp laser beams make it possible to cut or drill holes in various materials extremely precisely – even in living matter. Millions of eye operations are performed every year with the sharpest of laser beams.#NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/MiYb4i8AHw

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 2, 2018