Nobel physics prize winners include first female laureate for 55 YEARS

First woman in 55 YEARS is awarded Nobel physics prize just hours after CERN scientist was suspended for saying the genre was ‘invented and built by men’

  • Arthur Ashkin of the United States won one half of the prize
  • Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada shared the other half  
  • Professor Ashkin developed ‘optical tweezers’ that grab tiny particles
  • Professor Strickland and Mourou helped develop short and intense laser pulses
  • Professor Strickland is the first women to win the award for 55 years

Three scientists have shared the Nobel physics prize for inventions in the field of laser physics.

Arthur Ashkin of the United States won one half of the prize, while Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada shared the other half ‘for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics’.    

Professor Strickland from the University of Waterloo, Canada, is the first women to win the award for 55 years.

The announcement comes just hours after Alessandro Strumia of Pisa University was suspended following a ‘highly offensive’ presentation at CERN on gender issues.

The Italian physicist said male scientists were the victims of discrimination during a workshop on ‘High Energy Theory and Gender’.

In one of the slides he is understood to have said: ‘Physics invented and built by men, it’s not by invitation.’  



Arthur Ashkin (left) of the United States won one half of the prize, while Gerard Mourou (middle) of France and Donna Strickland (right) of Canada shared the other half ‘for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics’. Professor Strickland is the first women to win the award for 55 years

WHAT DID ALESSANDRO STRUMIA SAY AT CERN? 

Alessandro Strumia of Pisa University said male scientists were the victims of discrimination during a workshop on ‘High Energy Theory and Gender’.

CERN has condemned the scientist’s remarks saying they were ‘highly offensive’ and that the slides from his talk had been removed from its website.

But Professor Strumia has stood by his comments, made to a predominantly female audience, BBC News has reported.

In one of the slides he is understood to have said: ‘Physics invented and built by men, it’s not by invitation.’

He claimed: ‘Physics is not sexist against women. However the truth does not matter, because it is part of a political battle coming from outside. Not clear who will win.’

According to slides posted online he cited examples of supposed discrimination against men including cheaper university places in Italy and longer exam times at Oxford which are claimed to benefit women.

In a long series of slides he criticised politicians for promoting ‘victimocracy’ and said he was expressing ‘thoughtcrime’.

He also said women were hired with fewer citations and said the ‘assumption of identical brains is ideology’. 

Professor Strickland said she was honoured to be one of the small number of female winners of the physics Nobel so far. 

Her predecessor was Maria Goeppert Mayer, who won the prize in 1963 for her work on atomic nuclei and the first winner was Marie Curie in 1903.

‘Obviously we need to celebrate women physicists, because we’re out there,’ she said.

‘The inventions being honoured this year have revolutionised laser physics,’ the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on awarding the prize. 

‘Advanced precision instruments are opening up unexplored areas of research and a multitude of industrial and medical applications,’ it said in a statement.  

The academy says Professor Ashkin, who was born in September 1922, developed ‘optical tweezers’ that can grab tiny particles such as viruses without damaging them.

Professor Strickland and Mourou helped develop short and intense laser pulses that have broad industrial and medical applications.   

Nobel laureate Donna Strickland says her first thought on hearing she’d won the physics prize was ‘it’s crazy.’

Speaking by phone shortly after the announcement was made in Stockholm on Tuesday, Professor Strickland said: ‘You do always wonder if it’s real.’  

The Nobel Prize for physics honours researchers for discoveries in phenomena as enormous as The Big Bang and as tiny as single particles of light.

The 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million/870,000 euros/ £770,000) prize, which will be shared between the winners, is decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 


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Professor Ashkin was given one half of the prestigious award for inventing ‘optical tweezers’ – intense laser beams that can grab microscopic particles and move them about for study.

They use light to move physical objects, ‘an old dream of science fiction,’ according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The beams use light’s natural radiation pressure, allowing scientists to examine and manipulate viruses, bacteria and other living cells – even individual atoms – without damaging them.

Arthur Ashkin of the United States (left) won one half of the prize, while Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada (right) shared the other half

WHAT DID THE 2018 PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS DO?

Arthur Ashkin of the United States won one half of the prize, while Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada shared the other half ‘for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics’.     

Professor Ashkin was given one half of the prestigious award for inventing ‘optical tweezers’ – intense laser beams that can grab microscopic particles and move them about for study.

They use light to move physical objects, ‘an old dream of science fiction,’ according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The beams use light’s natural radiation pressure, allowing scientists to examine and manipulate viruses, bacteria and other living cells – even individual atoms – without damaging them.

The Nobel prize committee said the innovation, which Professor Ashkin developed in the 1970s and 1980s, had created ‘new opportunities for observing and controlling the machinery of life’. 

The other half of the prize pot was split between Professor Mourou and Professor Strickland for their joint development of ultra-short optical pulses.

When early lasers were being developed in the 1960s, scientists encountered the problem of how to scale up the beams without also boosting their intensity to potentially dangerous levels.

Professor Mourou and Strickland developed a technique, known as chirped-pulse amplification (CPA), which enabled researchers to boost laser power but keeping the intensity safe by having incredibly short light bursts.

CPA first stretches laser pulses over time to reduce their intensity, before amplifying them and compressing them again.

The compressed pulses saw more light packed into a shorter time, increasing the intensity of the pulse.

It enables beams to cut or drill holes in various materials, including living matter, with extreme precision.

Today the technique is used in millions of laser eye surgeries across the world and is being applied to research in several fields, including cancer care.

The Nobel prize committee said the innovation, which Professor Ashkin developed in the 1970s and 1980s, had created ‘new opportunities for observing and controlling the machinery of life’.   

The other half of the prize pot was split between Professor Mourou and Professor for their joint development of ultra-short optical pulses.

When early lasers were being developed in the 1960s, scientists encountered the problem of how to scale up the beams without also boosting their intensity to potentially dangerous levels. 

Professor Mourou and Strickland developed a technique, known as chirped-pulse amplification (CPA), which enabled researchers to boost laser power but keeping the intensity safe by having incredibly short light bursts.

Three scientists have shared the Nobel physics prize for inventions in the field of laser physics. Pictured left to right is Arthur Ashkin, Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland

CPA first stretches laser pulses over time to reduce their intensity, before amplifying them and compressing them again.

The compressed pulses saw more light packed into a shorter time, increasing the intensity of the pulse.

It enables beams to cut or drill holes in various materials, including living matter, with extreme precision.

Today the technique is used in millions of laser eye surgeries across the world and is being applied to research in several fields, including cancer care.

Last year’s 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.

The 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million/ £770,000) prize, which will be shared between the winners, is decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm (pictured)

WHO WAS ALFRED NOBEL? 

Pictured is a statue of Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel

Nobel prizes were initially awarded in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. 

The prizes take their name from Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.

During his life, he started 87 companies all over the world and amassed an incredible fortune. 

At the time of his death on December 10, 1896, he had 355 patents globally, including one for dynamite.

His will stipulated that the money should be used to establish prizes to award those who had done their best to benefit mankind.

The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel’s death.  

On Monday, American James Allison and Japan’s Tasuku Honjo won the Nobel medicine prize for groundbreaking work in fighting cancer with the body’s own immune system.

The Nobel chemistry prize comes Wednesday, followed by the peace prize on Friday. The economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel, will be announced on 8 October.

For the first time since 1949, the Swedish Academy has postponed the announcement of the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize until next year, amid a #MeToo scandal and bitter internal dispute that has prevented it from functioning properly.

The prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were created in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901.

Nobel prizes were initially awarded in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace.

In 1969, another prize was added, The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

The Nobel Laureates are announced annually at the beginning of October, but are honoured in December, on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

All Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded in Oslo, Norway.

During his life, Alfred Nobel started 87 companies all over the world and amassed an incredible fortune.

At the time of his death on December 10, 1896, he had 355 patents globally, including one for dynamite.

His will stipulated that the money should be used to establish prizes to award those who had done their best to benefit mankind.

 

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