Nobel Prize in Physics goes to inventors of laser technology

Three researchers on Tuesday shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventions in the field of laser physics which have paved the way for advanced precision instruments used in industry and medicine, the jury said.

Arthur Ashkin of the United States won one half of the prize, while Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada shared the other half.

“The inventions being honoured this year have revolutionised laser physics,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on awarding the 9 million krona (US$1 million) prize. “Advanced precision instruments are opening up unexplored areas of research and a multitude of industrial and medical applications,” it said in a statement.

The award honours researchers for discoveries in phenomena as enormous as The Big Bang and as tiny as single particles of light.

Last year’s physics prize went to three Americans who used abstruse theory and ingenious equipment design to detect the faint ripples in the universe called gravitational waves.

On Monday, American James Allison and Japan’s Tasuku Honjo won the Nobel medicine prize for groundbreaking work in fighting cancer with the body’s own immune system.

The Nobel chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday, followed by the peace prize on Friday. The economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel, will be announced on October 8.

Source: Agencies