The winners include the first female winner in 55 years.
"Optical Tweezers" and Tools Used for Laser Eye Surgery Snag Physics Nobel
Optical physicists Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for “groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.”
Half of this year’s nine-million-kronor (about $1-million) prize goes to American physicist Arthur Ashkin for his invention of “optical tweezers,” lasers that can probe the machinery of life without causing damage. The other half will be split jointly between French physicist Gérard Mourou and Canadian physicist Donna Strickland for their development of “chirped pulse amplification” (CPA)—a method for making ultrashort, high-intensity laser pulses now routinely used in corrective eye surgery and precision machining. Strickland is the first female physics laureate in 55 years, and only the third in the prize’s long, venerable history. The new laureates will receive their prizes in December at a ceremony in Stockholm.