Biography:
Donna Theo Strickland is a Canadian optical physicist known for her pioneering work in the field of pulsed lasers. She was born on May 27, 1959, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, to Edith J. and Lloyd Strickland. Her mother was an English teacher, while her father worked as an electrical engineer.
Strickland’s interest in lasers and electro-optics led her to enroll in the engineering physics program at McMaster University. She stood out as one of only three women in the class of twenty-five. In 1981, she graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in engineering physics.
Continuing her educational journey, Strickland pursued her graduate degree at The Institute of Optics. She conducted her doctoral research at the University of Rochester, supervised by Gérard Mourou. Strickland and Mourou collaborated on developing an experimental setup that could increase the peak power of laser pulses. Their breakthrough technique, known as chirped pulse amplification, involved stretching out laser pulses both spectrally and in time before amplifying them and then compressing them back to their original duration. This allowed the generation of ultrashort optical pulses with terawatt to petawatt intensity.
Strickland’s work on chirped pulse amplification revolutionized laser technology. It overcame the limitation of self-focusing that severely damaged amplifying parts of lasers when the intensity reached gigawatts per square centimeter. This breakthrough enabled the development of smaller, high-power laser systems, known as table-top terawatt lasers.
In recognition of their groundbreaking work, Strickland and Mourou were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018. Their achievement has had a profound impact on various fields, including medical imaging, cancer treatment, and scientific research.
Throughout her career, Strickland has held prestigious positions and made significant contributions to the scientific community. She served as a research associate at the National Research Council of Canada from 1988 to 1991. During this time, she worked with Paul Corkum in the Ultrafast Phenomena Section, where they produced the most powerful short-pulse laser in the world.
Strickland went on to work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s laser division from 1991 to 1992 and later joined Princeton University’s Advanced Technology Center for Photonics and Opto-electronic Materials.
In 1997, Strickland became an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo, where she currently holds a position as a professor in the Physics Department. Her appointment as a full-time professor made her the first female physics professor at the University of Waterloo.
Aside from her academic achievements, Strickland has been involved in various organizations within her field. She served as a fellow, vice president, and president of Optica (formerly known as OSA), an international scientific society dedicated to advancing optics and photonics. Additionally, she currently chairs Optica’s Presidential Advisory Committee.
To further recognize her contributions, Strickland was featured on BBC’s 100 Women list in 2018. Her groundbreaking work and dedication have made her an instrumental figure in the field of physics.