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| First woman Physics Nobel winner in 55 years | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to a woman for the first time in 55 years. | |
| Donna Strickland, from Canada, is only the third woman winner of the award, along with Marie Curie, who won in 1903, and Maria Goeppoert-Mayer, who was awarded the prize in 1963. | |
| Dr Strickland shares this year's prize with Arthur Ashkin, from the US, and Gerard Mourou, from France. | |
| It recognises their discoveries in the field of laser physics. | |
| Dr Ashkin developed a laser technique described as optical tweezers, which is used to study biological systems. | Dr Ashkin developed a laser technique described as optical tweezers, which is used to study biological systems. |
| Drs Mourou and Strickland came up with a way of generating high intensity and very short laser pulses, which have a variety of applications. One of these is in laser eye surgery. | |
| The award is worth a total of nine million Swedish kronor (£770,686; $998,618). | |
| Reacting to her win, Dr Strickland, who is based at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said: "First of all you have to think it's crazy, so that was my first thought. And you do always wonder if it's real. | |
| "As far as sharing it with Gerard, of course he was my supervisor and mentor and he has taken CPA (Chirped Pulse Amplification) to great heights so he definitely deserves this award. And I'm so happy Art Ashkin also won." | |
| She added: "I think that he made so many discoveries early on that other people have done great things with that it's fantastic that he is finally recognised.") | |
| The last woman to win the physics prize, German-born American physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, shared the award for her discoveries about the nuclei of atoms. | |
| Marie Curie, shared the 1903 award with her husband Pierre Curie and Antoine Henri Becquerel for research into radioactivity. | |
| Cern scientist suspended after comments | |
| Previous winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics | Previous winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics |
| 2017 - Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish earned the award for the detection of gravitational waves. | 2017 - Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish earned the award for the detection of gravitational waves. |
| 2016 - David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz shared the award for their work on rare phases of matter. | 2016 - David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz shared the award for their work on rare phases of matter. |
| 2015 - Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald were awarded the prize the discovery that neutrinos switch between different "flavours". | 2015 - Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald were awarded the prize the discovery that neutrinos switch between different "flavours". |
| 2014 - Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura won the physics Nobel for developing the first blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). | 2014 - Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura won the physics Nobel for developing the first blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). |
| 2013 - Francois Englert and Peter Higgs shared the spoils for formulating the theory of the Higgs boson particle. | 2013 - Francois Englert and Peter Higgs shared the spoils for formulating the theory of the Higgs boson particle. |
| 2012 - Serge Haroche and David J Wineland were awarded the prize for their work with light and matter. | 2012 - Serge Haroche and David J Wineland were awarded the prize for their work with light and matter. |