Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland; Light that Makes People’s Lives Easier
Arthur Ashkin, who won the 2018 Physics Nobel Prize for inventing "optical tweezers", poses in his home in Rumson, New Jersey, U.S., October 2, 2018.
Strong and colorful lasers are often featured in various performances. Lasers are also used as toys, which are often blamed for disturbing flights. In fact, lasers have many more applications than that, such as moving tiny particles or cutting material.
The voice of Arthur Ashkin, 96, was flat when the committee of the Nobel Prize in Physics called and congratulated him on his achievement. He was not overjoyed, although he was surprised to receive a phone call from Sweden on Tuesday (2/10/2018) at 5 a.m. in New Jersey, the United States.
“I am very old already and had given up worrying about things like Nobel Prizes,” he told The Associated Press. He did expect the most prestigious science award a few years ago but eventually gave up. “Of course, I am proud,” he said.
The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences on Tuesday in Solna, near Stockholm, announced Ashkin, 96, along with Gérard Mourou, 74, of France and Donna Strickland, 59, from Canada the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. The award was given for their innovation in lasers.
The three of them are entitled to a prize of nine million krona (Rp 15 billion). Half of the prize will go to Ashkin and the other half for Mourou and Strickland.
Eldest
Ashkin is now the eldest Nobel laureate. The prize is awarded for his invention of optical tweezers, an instrument that uses lasers to manipulate particles, single atoms, viruses and other living cells. He came up with the invention when he was working at Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, the US, from 1952-1991.
Gerard Mourou of France, one of the three researchers who won the 2018 Nobel Physics Prize for inventions in the field of laser physics poses at his laboratoty at the Ecole Polytechnique on October 2, 2018 in Palaiseau.
But when the Nobel committee asked him to comment on being the oldest Nobel laureate, Ashkin just laughed and did not feel like the oldest Nobel laureate. For him, research is only research, which anyone can do regardless of age.
At nearly a century old, Ashkin is still researching and reading various scientific journals. At present, he is researching solar energy at his home. He does this research as a hobby.
"I say to my wife, this [the research] is the only thing that I have mastered," he said.
Ashkin examined the use of laser light (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) in the 1960s, just after the laser beam was discovered.
At that time, he dreamed, light could be used to move things, including asteroids, like in the science fiction film Star Trek.
When he proposed his idea to move living things with light to his colleagues, they considered the idea to be redundant.
It was this response that drove him until 1987, when he made a breakthrough by capturing live bacteria using optical tweezers without damaging them. Now, the technique is being used in many laboratories to investigate biological systems and machines, ranging from proteins, molecular propulsion systems, deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) to systems in cells.
In 1985, Strickland and Mourou helped develop short and intense laser pulses. They created the new technology to produce laser light when they worked at the University of Rochester in the US.
At that time, Strickland was Mourou\'s doctoral student.
The technique of making high-intensity and ultra-short laser beams is called chirped pulse amplification (CPA). “With this technique, the laser beam produced can have a power of up to 1 million-1 billion times than before,” said Mourou, who currently teaches at the École Polytechnique (Polytechnic School) in Palaiseau, south of Paris, France, and professor emeritus of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the US.
Professor Dr. Donna Strickland poses for a portrait following a news conference at the University of Waterloo to field questions about her shared Nobel Prize in Physics, October 2, 2018 in Waterloo, Canada. Strickland won for her work on ultrashort lasers. The other two recipients were laser physicists Arthur Ashkin and Gérard Mourou.
With that great power, the use of lasers has become more widespread. Now, lasers are widely used in the fields of medicine, information technology, industry and the military.
The medical uses of lasers range from circumcision in men to cornea repair surgery through lasik surgery (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) for those who experience visual impairment. In industry, lasers are used to cut, drill and perforate various materials ranging from paper to steel with high precision.
“I am very happy to share the award with my former student, Donna Strickland, as well as someone I respect very much, Arthur Ashkin,” he said.
Mourou is currently involved in a number of European projects, Extreme Light Infrastructure, which is expected to produce the strongest laser beam in the world. If successful, the laser is expected to help deal with a variety of other human problems, ranging from handling nuclear waste and treating tumors, to cleaning up space junk.
However, all of that must be done step by step. In research, he continued, there was no instant “Eureka!”
Woman
Strickland, who is now a lecturer at the University of Waterloo, Canada, admitted to being surprised to receive the award. The
Nobel Prize, especially in Physics, is something that is difficult for women to achieve, which raises the issue of gender bias and misogyny every year each time the award is announced.
In the 112 times the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded since 1901, the awarding ceremony having been halted several times during World War I and II, 210 scientists have received it. However, among the recipients, there are only three female physicists, or 1.4 percent.
Strickland became the third female Nobel laureate in physics. The previous female recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics were Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963.
The Nobel Prize in Physics was also never in Strickland’s dream. For her, she only tried to be the best in everything she did, including when she was a student of the doctoral program that earned her this award. However, finally, all of it was sweet and nothing was in vain.
“We need to celebrate because real female physicists are out there. "I feel honored to be one of the women [winning the Nobel Prize in Physics]," he said.
Arthur Ashkin
Born: New York, US, Sept. 2, 1922 Doctoral education: Cornell University, Ithaca, US, 1952
Institution: Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, US
Gérard Mourou
Born: Albertville, France, June 22, 1944
Doctoral: Pierre and Marie Curie University, 1973
Institution: École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US
Donna Strickland
Born: Guelph, Canada, 1959 Doctoral: University of Rochester, US, 1989
Institution: University of Waterloo, Canada
