3 scientists win Nobel Prize in physics for laser inventions

Three scientists from the United States, France and Canada won this year's Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for their pioneering work in the field of laser research.

They are Arthur Ashkin, a researcher at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, Gerard Mourou, a professor emeritus both at Ecole Polytechnique in France and the University of Michigan, and Donna Strickland, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The academy said Ashkin, Mourou and Strickland were awarded the prize for "groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics," which have contributed to the development of advanced medical and industrial precision instruments.

It said the prize of 9 million kronor ($1 million) will be shared one-half by Ashkin and the other half jointly by Mourou and Strickland.

Ashkin invented "optical tweezers" that use focused beams of light to grab particles, atoms and molecules.

The academy praised his invention for opening up "new opportunities for observing and controlling the machinery of life."

The 96-year-old American scientist became the oldest laureate for any of the prestigious Nobel prizes. He is six years older than Leonid Hurwicz was when he was awarded the 2007 economics prize.

The academy said Mourou and Strickland "paved the way toward the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created by mankind."

The pair's technique, called chirped pulse amplification, has already been adapted to the medical sphere, leading to new advances in corrective eye surgery.

Strickland is the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize in physics since 1963, when Maria Goeppert-Mayer was recognized for her work on nuclear shell structure.

Strickland is also only the third woman to have won the physics prize, which was first awarded to Marie Curie in 1903.