The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded "for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics" with one half to Arthur Ashkin "for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems", the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland "for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses". Strickland received the prize for her first published research paper, as a student under the supervision of Mourou, and is the third women to receive the Nobel prize in physics.
In an interview to “Kan bet” Professor Moti Segev of the physics department at the Technion noted that Arthur Ashkin made profound contributions to the field of laser optics and had received the 2004 Harvey prize at the Technion, “In recognition of his pioneering theoretical and experimental research on manipulation of particles by laser light forces, including the invention of optical tweezers”. The research of Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland paved the way for the shortest, most intense laser beams ever created. Their technique is used in the Physics department at the Technion by Professor Oren Cohen and Professor Segev, as well as several other groups throughout the Technion. The invention of optical tweezers by Arthur Ashkin is used by Professor Ariel Kaplan in the study of biophysics in the biology department at the Technion.
- The Nobel prize press release
- Interview with Professor Moti Segev
- “Big little science” coverage of the Nobel prize