Nobel Prize in Physics is shared by a woman, the first in 55 years

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Arthur Ashkin, and the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland "for their groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics."

Posted 10:02 a.m. Oct 2, 2018 — Updated 10:20 a.m. Oct 2, 2018

Eliza Mackintosh

, CNN

(CNN) — The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Arthur Ashkin, and the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland "for their groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics."

Nobel Laureate Arthur Ashkin has been awarded the Nobel Prize for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems, while Laureates Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland have been awarded the prize for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.

Strickland is the first woman in 55 years to be awarded the prize.

"We need to celebrate women physicists because we're out there. I'm honored to be one of those women," Strickland said in a news conference following the announcement in Stockholm.

Speaking about being the third woman to ever win the award, she said: "Hopefully in time it will start to move forward at a faster rate."

Ashkin is American, Mourou is French and Strickland is Canadian.

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