On Wednesday, January 30th my friends and I attended the University of Waterloo’s President’s Lecture featuring 2018 Nobel Prize laureate Donna Strickland. We listened to her talk about her research and how it led her to develop chirped pulse amplification with Gérard Mourou, her Ph.D. supervisor. Her lecture was then followed by a small Q&A session in which she answered prepicked questions from the audience as well as Kate Lunau’s (Senior Editor of Vice Motherboard, VICE Canada‘s science and technology) questions.
It was such an interesting and awe-inspiring experience since you can see her passion in her research and excitement with lasers. She explained the basics of how lasers work, explained the research that led to the development of lasers and eventually her Nobel Prize winner research, and how chirped pulse amplification now has several applications such as laser eye surgery.
During the fireside talk, topics that were spoken about included what got her into lasers, diversity/equality in science, and whether fundamental research (i.e. research with no application in mind yet) is being funded by the government enough or not. She explained how it was probably her dad who got her into lasers after going to the Ontario Science Centre to look at one. Strickland also talked about how diversity and equality in academia have improved over the years in comparison to when she was in school, but still not where it could be.
Overall I’m glad I attended this lecture. It’s so inspiring to see and listen to the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics and the first one in 55 years! Seeing someone be so passionate and happy to be studying and talking about something they love is just so nice to see.
Stuffomatic Blog 