What makes Donna Strickland a Global Shaker?
Donna Strickland was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018 for her role in inventing chirped pulse amplification. This makes her just the third woman ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, and the first woman since Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963.
What’s particularly interesting about Strickland is that she received the highest honour in science from a position as unconventional as ‘associate professor’, rather than as a full professor. She told the website The Record that she’d never felt the need to “fill out the paperwork” to apply for the higher position, as she already had tenure and there was no guaranteed pay rise.
Strickland attended McMaster University, attracted to the lasers and electro-optics capacities of the engineer physics programme. She was one of just three women to graduate from a class of 25 people, then went on to receive a PhD from the University of Rochester.
Her chirped pulse amplification allowed smaller high-power laser systems to be built on a typical laboratory optical table.
As of 2020, she’s a full professor at the University of Waterloo, and has served as fellow, vice president and president of The Optical Society.
Tags: Canada, Nobel Prize, physics, research, Women in Science, Women in STEMLast updated: November 10, 2020
Next Profile
Travel
The Best Hikes in Chile: Unforgettable Views
Environment
Valdís Steinarsdóttir is Creating Packaging From the Byproducts of the Meat…
Technology
The Company Generating Renewable Energy From Soil
Robert Scott Lazar
United Nuclear
Helena Abreu
AlgaPlus
Onyeka Akumah
Farmcrowdy
Oluseun Onigbinde
BudgIT
Alloysius Attah
Farmerline
Nichole Onome Yembra
The Chrysalis…
Bosun Tijani
Co-Creation Hub…
Charlette Desire
BACE
Bernard Kiwia
Twende Social…
Kendall Ananyi
Tizeti
Mbwana Alliy
Savannah Group
Jamie Pujara
Buy Rent Kenya
Issam Darui (عصام دروي)
Lagare.ma
Temitope Ogunsemo
Krystal Digital…
Phil Bevan
International…
Seyi Akiwowo
Glitch
Daniel Hurtado
DALI
Michael Acton Smith
Calm
Rahul Narayan
TeamIndus
Chune Yang Lum
SpeQtral
Robert Boehme
Planetary…
Andrea Yip
Luna Design and…
Bob Richards
Moon Express
Jeffrey Manber
Nanoracks
George Whitesides
Virgin Galactic
Vivienne Ming
Socos Labs
Mouhamadou Sall
NIMA Codes
Abdellah Mallek
Sylabs
Lucia Bakulumpagi-Wamala
Bakulu Power
Gossy Ukanwoke
Beni American…
Amr Sobhy (عمرو صبحي)
PushBots
Nasir Yammama
Verdant Agri-Tech
Jason Njoku
iROKOtv
Hilda Moraa
Pezesha
Iyinoluwa E Aboyeji
Future Africa
Obinna Okwodu
Fibre
Nthabiseng Mosia
Easy Solar
Betelhem Dessie
iCog Labs - Anyone…
Marta Karczewicz
Qualcomm
Michelle Simmons
University of New…
Tu Youyou
China Academy of…
Dharmica Mistry
BCAL Diagnostics
Joanna Bagniewska
University of…
Emma Johnston
University of New…
Rupal Patel
VocaliD
Maggie Aderin-Pocock
BBC
Frances Arnold
California Institute…
Fei-Fei Li (李飞飞)
Stanford Institute…
Christina Koch
National Aeronautics…
Rebecca Ballantyne
Sellafield
Ingrid Daubechies
Duke University
Geetha Manjunath
Niramai
Ailie MacAdam
Bechtel Corporation
Mary Kerr
NeRRe Therapeutics
Dr Merritt Moore
Physics on Pointe
Preethi Kasireddy
TruStory
Catherine Coley
Binance US
Jill Carlson
Open Money…
Thea Sommerseth Myhren
Diwala
Chrissa McFarlane
Patientory, Inc
Chris Zhong
Blockchain…
Daisy Ozim
Resilient Wellness
Connie Gallippi
BitGive Foundation
Elle Toussi
In One Minute
Elizabeth Rossiello
BitPesa
Tavonia Evans
$GUAP Coin
Meltem Demirors
Coinshares
Leanne Kemp
Everledger
Dawn Dickson
PopCom
Kathryn Haun
Andreessen Horowitz
Bjørn Tore Orvik
Yara International
Sam Paschel
Zero Motorcycles
Robin Zeng
CATL
Wang Chuanfu (王传福)
BYD
Trevor Milton
Nikola Motor
Henri Poupart-Lafarge
Alstom
Konrad Bergström
X Shore
Bibiana Sarmiento
Instituto Distrital…
Frank Jensen
Copenhagen City…
Hiroki Isobe
Nissan
Linda Xie
Scalar Capital
Olli Rundgren
Pyson Games
Lual Mayen
Junub Games
Jon Roozenbeek
Bad News
Niklas Zennström
Atomico / Skype
Mehrdad Mahdjoubi
Orbital Systems
Johan Nihlén
Altered
Jim Tananbaum
Foresite Capital…
Ben Auspitz
F-Prime Capital
Jonathan Silverstein
OrbiMed
Carl Gordon
OrbiMed
Hans Jørgen Wiberg
Be My Eyes
Bryan Roberts
Venrock
James Topper
Frazier Healthcare…
Beth Seidenberg
Westlake Village…
Jean George
Lightstone Ventures
Angelica Ross
Trans Tech Social…
Arlan Hamilton
Backstage Capital
Robert Nelsen
Arch Venture…
Elli Kaplan
Neurotrack
André Borschberg
H55
Megan Smith
Shift7
David Bohnett
Baroda Ventures
Stephen Lake
North
Dora Palfi
imagiLabs
Siraj Raval
School of AI
Mark Pivac
Fastbrick Robotics
Shawn Fanning
Helium
Claudia Brind-Woody
IBM
Tim Cook
Apple
Daniel Winson
Agrinet
Beatrice Ionascu
imagiLabs
Austin Oehlerking
Boxbot
Tan Ming-Jen
Nanyang…
Neo Hutiri
Pelebox
Peter Thiel
Founders Fund
Liang Wu
Green City Solutions
Anirudh Sharma
Graviky
Kate Brandt
Joshua Hon
Tern Bicycles
Marc Benioff
Salesforce
Martin Stoelen
Fieldwork Robotics
Jeff Marshall
Ovation
Dr. Daniel Wallerstorfer
Novogenia
Irina Fedorenko
Biocarbon…
Robert F. Smith
Vista Equity…
Dr. Peter Diamandis
XPRIZE Foundation
Connie Chan (陈梅陵)
Andreessen Horowitz
Eric Paley
Founder Collective
Neeraj Agrawal
Battery Ventures
Jeff Jordan
Andreessen Horowitz
Jim Goetz
Sequoia Capital
Mohammed Hamdy
Go Clean
Matt Cohler
Benchmark
Aydin Senkut
Felicis Ventures
Josh Kopelman
First Round Capital
Brian Singerman
Founders Fund
Pete Ceglinski
Seabin
Lee Fixel
Tiger Global…
Ravi Mhatre
Lightspeed Venture…
JP Gan (甘剑平)
Qiming Venture…
Keller Rinaudo
Zipline…
Boyan Slat
The Ocean Cleanup
Hans Tung
GGV Capital
Blake Scholl
Boom Supersonic
Peter Fenton
Benchmark
Alfred Lin
Sequoia
Bill Gurley
Benchmark
Richard Jenkins
Saildrone
Toby Sun
Lime
Violeta Bulc
European Commission
Kathy Xu (徐新)
Capital Today
Ann Miura-Ko
Floodgate
Mary Meeker
Bond Capital
Kirsten Green
Forerunner Ventures
Livia Cevolini
Energica Motor
Florian Reuter
Volocopter
Duan Lianxiang
Byton
Marco Voigt
GreenTech Festival
Kay Stepper
Bosch
Deborah Navarro
Guadaloop
Neil Shen (沈南鹏)
Sequoia Capital…
Dr. Moustapha Cissé
Google AI
Barry Silbert
Digital Currency…
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Hayden Planetarium
Yuri Milner
Breakthrough…
Guy Kawasaki
Canva
Michio Kaku
City College of New…
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Royal Society
Ren Zhengfei (任正非)
Huawei
Philipe Comini
Gimmer
Norris Koppel
Monese
Colin Huang Zheng
Pinduoduo
Sir Anthony Seldon
University of…
Robin Li (李彦宏)
Baidu
Rohit Chaddha
Foodpanda
Bhavish Aggarwal
Ola Cabs
Anna Fang (方爱之)
ZhenFund
Yunji Chen & Tianshi Chen…
Cambricon
Li Zhifei
Mobvoi
Lei Chen (陈磊)
Xunlei
Ganesh Krishnan
Growth Story
Chen Xiaohong (陈小红)
H Capital
Gao Shixing (高始兴)
AiSpeech
Jean Liu (柳青)
DiDi
Yin Qi (印奇)
Megvii
Grace Chen
Beijing Aishengsheng…
Zhang Yiming (张一鸣)
ByteDance
Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia
Directi
Hu Weiwei (胡玮炜)
Mobike
Bill Huang (黄晓庆)
CloudMinds
Rahul Sharma
Micromax
Wang Jun (王俊)
iCarbonX
Sachin Bansal
Flipkart
Li Xu (徐立)
SenseTime Group…
Cindy Mi (米雯娟)
VIPKID
William Li (李斌)
NIO
Antoine Martin
Zenly
Nicolas Dessaigne
Algolia
Alix de Sagazan
AB Tasty
Cécile Schmollgruber
Stereolabs
Roxanne Varza
Station F
Rodolphe Hasselvander
Blue Frog Robotics
Boris Kesler Fasano
MainBot
Nicolas Fayon
Heek
Elina Berglund
Natural Cycles
Mai Li Hammargren
IHM Business School
Olov Renberg
BehavioSec
Joacim Westlund
Shortcut Labs
Carl Johan Grandinson
Glue
Alan Mamedi
True Software
Markus Persson
Mojang AB
Kent Vorland
SimplyPayMe
Joyeeta Das
Gyana
Fredrik Nordberg Almroth
Detectify
Hjalmar Nilsonne
Watty
Jacob De Geer
iZettle
Emma Walmsley
GlaxoSmithKline
Sebastian Siemiatkowski
Klarna
Martha Lane-Fox
Last Minute
Sarah Chapman
Faro Energy
Sarah Friar
Square
Sue Black
Social Entrepreneur
Lauren Riley
The Link App
Amrita Bharij
Rockstar Games
Jessica Saunders
Salix Games
Elizabeth Sampat
Future Games of…
Kim Swift
Electronic Arts
Amy Hennig
Jade Raymond
Electronic Arts'…
Corrinne Yu
General Motors
Jonathon Clarke
Locate a Locum
Ben Brabyn
Level39
Sherry Coutu
SVC2UK
Charles Chen
Chen Yidan…
Yuri Milner
Breakthrough…
Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr.
Lockheed Martin…
Takeshi Hakamada
iSpace
Marillyn Hewson
Lockheed Martin
Dennis Muilenburg
Boeing
Jeff Bezos
Blue Origin
Elon Musk
Tesla, SpaceX
Sundar Pichai
Mark Zuckerberg
Charles Wiles
Zzish
Yi Xu
Human
Sophia
Hanson Robotics
Rich Westman
Kaido Group
David Benigson
Signal Media
Amber Atherton
Zyper
Parsa Ghaffari
AYLIEN
Michael Denham
MindTrace
Alexandre Omeyer
Stepsize
Jane Zavalishina
Mechanica AI
Stefan Jeschonnek
Zeitgold
Steven Pinker
Harvard University
Emma Coats
Google Assistant
Simon Knowles
Graphcore
Ambarish Mitra
Blippar
Nick Bostrom
Future of Humanity…
Tabitha Goldstaub
Cognition X
Anaïs Barut
DAMAE Medical
Yong Zhao (赵勇)
Deep Glint
Ma Huateng (马化腾)
Tencent Holdings
José Manuel Entrecanales
Acciona
Francesco Starace
Enel
Juliet Davenport
Good Energy
Steve Katsaros
Nokero
Craig Arnold
Eaton Industries
Clément Sténac
Dataiku
Joanna Bryson
University of Bath
Brian Murphy
BrainWaveBank
Eric Risser
Artomatic
Iain Banks
Simon and Schuster
Poppy Gustafsson
Darktrace
Christophe Folschette
Talkwalker
Ali Parsa
Babylon Health
Ken Mulvany
BenevolentAI
Demis Hassabis
DeepMind
Joaquín de Piérola Marín
Abengoa
Marc Grynberg
Umicore
Nick Boyle
Lightsource
Joachim Lutz
Crop Energies
Aliaume Thiam (Akon)
Akon Lighting Africa
Wang Hong (王洪)
Risen Energy
Bill Jones
Pacific Ethanol
Kailash Tarachandani
Inox Wind
Mark Widmar
First Solar
Anders Runevad
Vestas
Todd A. Becker
Green Plains
Shawn Qu
Canadian Solar
Liam James
The iOutlet
Jay Radia
Yieldify
Louis Smith
Baiju Prafulkumar Bhatt & Vlad…
Robinhood
Jack Ma (马云)
Alibaba
Yali Zhu
Yunfeng Financial…
Janos Barberis
SuperCharger Fintech…
Valdis Dombrovskis
European Commission
Matt Jones
Songkick
Husayn Kassai
Onfido
Luke Massie
Vibe Tickets
Saket Modi
Lucideus
Christina Kehl
Knip
Dan Schulman
PayPal
Perianne Boring
Digital Chamber of…
Marta Krupinska
Azimo
Peng Lei (彭蕾)
Ant Financial
Nikolay Storonsky
Revolut
Mustafa Al-Bassam
Secure Trading
Ghela Boskovich
FemTechGlobal
Osama Bedier
Poynt
Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones
Queensbridge Venture…
Tom Woolf
EdAid
Samir Desai
Funding Circle
Mariano Belinky
Santander
Anna Wallace
Financial Conduct…
Dr Aldo Faisal
Faisal Labs
Monica Kalia
Neyber
Nuala Murphy
Moment Health
Kieran O’Neill
Thread
Tom Courtney
Property Basecamp
Akshay Ruparelia
Doorsteps
Peter Ramsey
Movem
Debbie Wosskow
Love Home Swap
Gemma Young
Settled
Rohan Silva
Second Home
Richard Browning
Gravity Industries
Rob Whitehead
Improbable
Mustafa Suleyman
Deep Mind
Louise Leolin
Dinobyte Labs
Ed Barton
Curiscope
Phoebe Hugh
Brolly
Jon Reynolds
Swiftkey
Ashton Kutcher
Actor/Investor
Diana Paredes
Suade
Matthias Kroener
Fidor
Taavet Hinrikus
TransferWise
Shachar Bialick
Curve
Rebecca Liebman
LearnLux
Blythe Masters
Edward Perello
Desktop Genetics
Susanne Chishti
FINTECH Circle
Claire Calmejane
Lloyds Banking Group
Hiroki Takeuchi
Go Cardless
Andy Murray
Investor
Ollie Purdue
Loot
Laura Coffey
Tech City UK
Morten Lund
Lundxy
Eileen Burbidge
Passion Capital
Anil Stocker
MarketInvoice
Chris Skinner
Author
Andra Sonea
Anthemis/11FS
Damian Kimmelman
DueDil
Chris Gledhill
Secco Aura
Gemma Godfrey
Moola
Devie Mohan
Burnmark
Stu Taylor
Algomi
Ben Corrigan & Jonny Plein
Pouch
Tom Blomfield
Monzo
Kate Hofman
GrowUp Urban Farms
Alborz Bozorgi and Ellenor McIntosh
Twipes
Adam Dixon
Phytophonics
Toby McCartney
MacRebur
Simon Crowther
Flood Protection…
Elizabeth Stark
Lightning Labs
Pieter Wuille
Blockstream
Oliver Bussmann
Bussmann Advisory
Adam Back
Blockstream
Chris Larsen
Ripple
Bobby Lee
BTCC
Alex Tapscott
NextBlock Global
Rhian Lewis
Salvia Media…
Pan Gongsheng (潘功勝)
People's Bank of…
The DAO Hacker
Unknown
John McAfee
Luxcore
Mir Liponi
Blockchain Lab
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban Companies
Andreas Antonopoulos
Let's Talk Bitcoin
Laura Shin
Unchained
Dinis Guarda
Ztudium Group
Peter Smith
Blockchain
Satoshi Nakamoto
Bitcoin
Charlie Lee
Litecoin
Jalak Jobanputra
Future\Perfect…
Shelita Burke
Arianna Simpson
Autonomous Partners
Jihan Wu
BITMAIN
Jay Clayton
Securities and…
Roger Ver
Bitcoin.com
Brian Armstrong
Coinbase
Alexia Bonatsos
Dream Machine
The Winklevoss Twins
Gemini
Vitalik Buterin
Ethereum
Mark Carney
Bank of England
Anne-Marie Imafidon
Stemettes
Bill Gates
Bill & Melinda Gates…
Videos
