Donna Strickland

When she was little, she played with building blocks.
In 2018, she was one of the only women in science – after Marie Curie and Maria Goeppert-Mayer – to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in the field of pulsed lasers. In this interview, she discusses the scientific intuition that led to her discovery of medical applications for lasers, for example to treat presbyopia.
Lasers are versatile and powerful tools, with many other applications possible or on the way, not just in the medical field. In this light, Professor Strickland wonders what could happen if a discovery were to be used with malicious intentions.