Professor Donna Strickland is a joint recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for her work on creating ultra-intense laser pulses with applications to medicine and technology.
Professor Strickland graduated with a B. Eng. in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in 1981, and received her PhD in Physics from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester in 1989. She worked at the National Research Council of Canada, the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and Princeton University, before joining the faculty of the University of Waterloo in 1997, where she leads an Ultrafast Laser group. Professor Strickland was elected a Fellow of the Optical Society (2008), and served as its Vice-President (2011) and President (2013). Professor Strickland was a joint recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for her work on Chirped Pulse Amplification, which finds wide application in laser surgery, high precision micromachining, and fundamental science studies.