Scientists Arthur Ashkin, Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland have won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics for breakthroughs in the field of lasers used for surgery as well as scientific study.
Scientists Arthur Ashkin, Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland have won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics for breakthroughs in the field of lasers used for surgery as well as scientific study.
American Ashkin of Bell Laboratories in the United States won half of the prize while Frenchman Mourou, who also has U.S. citizenship and Canadian Strickland shared the other half. Strickland, of the University of Waterloo, Canada, becomes only the third woman to win a Nobel prize for physics.
Ashkin, 96, was honoured for his invention of "optical tweezers" that grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells with their laser beam fingers. With this he was able to use the radiation pressure of light to move physical objects, "an old dream of science fiction.”
A major breakthrough came in 1987, when Ashkin used the tweezers to capture living bacteria without harming them. He immediately began studying biological systems and optical tweezers are now widely used to investigate the machinery of life.
Meanwhile Mourou, 74, and Strickland -- only the third woman to win the Physics Prize -- won for together developing a method to generate ultra-short optical pulses, "the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created by mankind. Their technique is now used in corrective eye surgery.
They also paved the way towards the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created by mankind. Their revolutionary article was published in 1985 and was the foundation of Strickland’s doctoral thesis.
The inventions honoured this year have revolutionized laser physics. Extremely small objects and incredibly rapid processes are now being seen in a new light. Advanced precision instruments are opening up unexplored areas of research and a multitude of industrial and medical applications.
Last year, US astrophysicists Barry Barish, Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss won the physics prize for the discovery of gravitational waves, predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago as part of his theory of general relativity.
The prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace have been awarded since 1901 in accordance with the will of Swedish business tycoon Alfred Nobel, whose discovery of dynamite generated a vast fortune used to fund the prize.
With inputs from Agencies
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