Donna Strickland

Donna Strickland
Born	Donna Theo Strickland 27 5, 1959
Birthplace	Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Physicist, professor
Title	Professor of Physics
Employer	University of Waterloo
Known for	Chirped pulse amplification
Education	Ph.D., University of Rochester (1988)
Spouse(s)	Doug Dykaar
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (2018)
Website	[https://uwaterloo.ca/physics-astronomy/people-profiles/donna-strickland Official site]

Donna Theo Strickland (born May 27, 1959) is a Canadian optical physicist and professor at the University of Waterloo whose pioneering work on chirped pulse amplification (CPA) transformed the capabilities of high-intensity laser systems. In 2018, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, together with her former doctoral advisor Gérard Mourou, for the practical implementation of CPA — a technique that allows the generation of ultrashort, high-intensity laser pulses without destroying the amplifying medium. Strickland became the third woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, and the first in 55 years, following Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963. The CPA technique she helped develop has found wide-ranging applications, from corrective laser eye surgery to industrial machining and fundamental physics research. Beyond her research contributions, Strickland has served as a fellow, vice president, and president of Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America) and has been an advocate for encouraging women in science and physics.

Early Life

Donna Theo Strickland was born on May 27, 1959, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Growing up in a middle-class Canadian household, Strickland developed an early curiosity about the natural world and how things worked. Her path from a curious child in southwestern Ontario to a Nobel laureate has been described as originating with a genuine fascination for science from a young age.

Strickland has spoken publicly about her early interest in physics and lasers. In interviews following her Nobel Prize, she described her attraction to the field with characteristic directness, stating that she thought "lasers are cool" and that this enthusiasm, combined with what she described as "very, very hard" work, drove her career in optical physics.

Her upbringing in Guelph, a university city in Ontario, provided a stable foundation for her academic development. Though detailed information about her parents and siblings is limited in published sources, Strickland's trajectory from a small Canadian city to the highest levels of international physics recognition has been noted as emblematic of the accessibility of scientific careers in the Canadian educational system.

Education

Strickland pursued her undergraduate studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, where she studied engineering physics. McMaster has since recognized her as one of its most distinguished alumni; in 2025, a street on the McMaster campus was named in her honour alongside fellow Nobel Laureate and McMaster alumnus Myron Scholes.

After completing her undergraduate degree, Strickland moved to the University of Rochester in New York State for her graduate studies. She conducted her doctoral research at the university's Laboratory for Laser Energetics under the supervision of Gérard Mourou. Her doctoral thesis, titled Development of an Ultra-Bright Laser and an Application to Multi-photon Ionization, was completed in 1988. It was during this doctoral work that Strickland and Mourou developed the technique of chirped pulse amplification, the breakthrough that would eventually earn them the Nobel Prize three decades later.

Career

Development of Chirped Pulse Amplification

The central achievement of Strickland's career — and the work for which she received the Nobel Prize — was the development of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) during her doctoral research at the University of Rochester in the mid-1980s. Working under the supervision of Gérard Mourou at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Strickland tackled a fundamental problem in laser physics: how to amplify laser pulses to extremely high intensities without damaging the amplifying material itself.

Before CPA, attempts to amplify short laser pulses to high intensities were limited by the fact that the intense light would destroy the gain medium — the material used to amplify the laser beam. The solution that Strickland and Mourou devised was elegant: first, stretch the laser pulse in time using a pair of gratings (a process that "chirps" the pulse, spreading out its component wavelengths), then amplify the now-longer and lower-intensity pulse safely, and finally compress the amplified pulse back to its original short duration. The result was ultrashort laser pulses of unprecedented intensity.

This technique opened entirely new possibilities in laser science. CPA allowed researchers and engineers to generate petawatt-class laser pulses — powers exceeding the total electrical generating capacity of entire nations, concentrated into pulses lasting only femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second). The practical applications proved enormous, ranging from precision eye surgery (LASIK) to industrial cutting and drilling, the study of ultrafast chemical and physical processes, and the generation of particle beams for physics experiments.

The original work on CPA was published while Strickland was still a graduate student. The foundational paper, co-authored with Mourou, appeared in 1985 and represented Strickland's first published scientific paper. Strickland has recalled the experience of developing CPA at Rochester, noting that at the time, she and Mourou knew the technique was significant but could not have predicted the full scope of its eventual impact.

Post-Doctoral and Early Academic Career

Following the completion of her Ph.D. in 1988, Strickland held positions at several research institutions before settling into her long-term academic home. She was a member of the technical staff at the National Research Council Canada and also worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, one of the premier laser research facilities in the world.

Strickland was a recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship, a competitive award given to early-career scientists and scholars in recognition of distinguished performance and potential.

University of Waterloo

Strickland joined the faculty of the University of Waterloo's Department of Physics and Astronomy, where she built her research group focused on developing high-intensity laser systems and studying nonlinear optics. Her research at Waterloo extended and built upon the CPA work, exploring new methods for generating ultrashort pulses and investigating their applications.

At the time of her Nobel Prize announcement in October 2018, Strickland held the rank of associate professor at the University of Waterloo — a fact that attracted considerable attention and commentary in academic circles, given that she had been a working physicist for three decades. In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Strickland addressed her rank directly, noting "I never applied" for full professorship. This revelation prompted broader discussions about academic promotion practices, particularly regarding women in science, and the extent to which publication metrics and institutional processes might not adequately capture the contributions of researchers whose work has transformative practical impact. Following the Nobel Prize announcement, Strickland was promoted to full professor at the University of Waterloo.

Strickland's research group at Waterloo has continued to work on the development and application of high-intensity, ultrafast laser systems. Her ongoing contributions to laser science have maintained the university's profile as a centre for photonics and optical physics research in Canada.

Leadership in Professional Organizations

Beyond her research, Strickland has played a significant role in the governance of professional scientific organizations. She has served in multiple leadership capacities within Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America, or OSA), one of the principal international professional societies for the optics and photonics community. Strickland was elected a Fellow of the OSA in 2008.

She subsequently served as vice president and then president of the organization, guiding the society through a period of growth and change. Following her presidency, Strickland assumed the role of chair of Optica's Presidential Advisory Committee, a position through which she continues to influence the strategic direction of the organization.

Public Engagement and Advocacy

Since receiving the Nobel Prize, Strickland has become an active public figure in science communication and advocacy for women in physics. She has delivered lectures at institutions around the world, sharing her scientific work and personal experiences in the field. In 2025, she visited Barnard College in New York with the stated aim of inspiring women scientists. That same year, she delivered a lecture at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in Spain, continuing her international engagement with the scientific community.

Strickland's status as only the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics has made her a prominent figure in discussions about gender representation in the sciences. Her Nobel Prize came 55 years after the last woman — Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963 — had received the physics prize, a gap that drew widespread commentary on the barriers women face in physics.

Personal Life

Donna Strickland is married to Doug Dykaar, who is also a scientist in the field of optics. The couple has children together. Strickland resides in the Waterloo region of Ontario, Canada, where she has lived since joining the University of Waterloo faculty.

In media profiles, Strickland has been described as unpretentious and direct in manner. The BBC profiled her under the headline "The 'laser jock' Nobel winner," referencing her self-described enthusiasm for lasers and hands-on approach to experimental physics. She has spoken about maintaining a work-life balance while pursuing a demanding research career, and has been open about the practical realities of being a working scientist and parent.

Strickland was named to the BBC 100 Women list in 2018, a recognition of influential and inspirational women from around the world.

Recognition

Nobel Prize in Physics

On October 2, 2018, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that Donna Strickland would share the Nobel Prize in Physics with Gérard Mourou "for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses." The other half of the prize was awarded to Arthur Ashkin for his invention of optical tweezers.

The announcement generated substantial international media coverage, in part because of the significance of the CPA technique and in part because of Strickland's position as the first woman in 55 years to receive the physics Nobel. Canadian media covered the award extensively, and the achievement was celebrated at both the University of Waterloo and the University of Rochester.

Other Honours and Awards

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Strickland has received numerous other forms of recognition throughout her career:

• Fellow of the Optical Society of America (2008) — Elected in recognition of her contributions to the field of optics.
• Sloan Research Fellowship — Awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation during her early career.
• NSERC Donna Strickland Prize — The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada established a prize bearing her name, recognizing her impact on Canadian science.
• Cottrell Scholar — Strickland received support from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement as a Cottrell Scholar.
• Street naming at McMaster University (2025) — A road on the campus of her alma mater was named in her honour alongside fellow McMaster alumnus and Nobel Laureate Myron Scholes.

Legacy

Donna Strickland's development of chirped pulse amplification, while still a graduate student, represents one of the most consequential advances in laser technology in the latter half of the 20th century. The technique she co-invented with Gérard Mourou is now used in virtually every high-power laser laboratory in the world and underpins a multi-billion-dollar industry in laser-based manufacturing, medical procedures, and scientific research.

The impact of CPA extends across multiple domains. In medicine, it enabled the development of precise corrective eye surgeries that have improved the vision of millions of people worldwide. In manufacturing, CPA-based lasers allow for micromachining of materials with minimal thermal damage. In fundamental physics, the technique has enabled the study of matter under extreme conditions and the development of tabletop particle accelerators.

Strickland's position as the third woman — and first in more than half a century — to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics has had a cultural and sociological impact beyond the scientific content of her work. Her Nobel generated renewed public and institutional discussion about the underrepresentation of women in physics and the structural factors that contribute to it. The fact that she held the rank of associate professor at the time of her Nobel announcement became a focal point for debates about academic promotion practices and the recognition of women's contributions in the sciences.

At the University of Waterloo, Strickland continues to contribute to the training of the next generation of optical physicists and laser scientists. Her public lectures and visits to institutions around the world — from Barnard College in New York to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain — reflect a sustained commitment to science communication and the encouragement of young researchers, particularly women, to pursue careers in physics.

The establishment of the NSERC Donna Strickland Prize by Canada's principal federal research funding agency represents formal institutional recognition of her role as one of the country's most accomplished scientists. Her name on the McMaster University campus, alongside that of Myron Scholes, similarly testifies to her enduring significance in Canadian science and higher education.