News of February 3, 2023

Nobel laureate Donna Strickland to visit Dresden

Prof. Donna Strickland is considered a pioneer in the research field of pulsed lasers. For her method of the so-called chirped pulse amplification, she received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018 – as the third woman to do so in history. In the second week of February 2023, the scientist will visit the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). Part of her program is a lecture at TU Dresden, which is open to everyone interested.

The event will take place on Wednesday, February 8, at the TU Dresden Audimax (Bergstraße 65, Dresden). “Generating High-Intensity, Ultrashort Optical Pulses” is the name of the presentation, in which Donna Strickland will give the audience insights into her time as a PhD student as well as into current laser research. Starting time is 7 p.m. Registration is required and possible at the following address: tu-dresden.de/mn/nobel

On the two days before, HZDR will have the honor of welcoming Prof. Strickland. The Nobel laureate will, among other things, take part in a scientific symposium on laser physics and, together with Michael Kretschmer, Minister President of Saxony, attend the ceremonial farewell of the former Scientific Director of the HZDR, Prof. Roland Sauerbrey. A trip to the Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields (HIBEF) at the European XFEL in Schenefeld is also planned during the course of the week.

Donna Strickland is a professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She developed chirped pulse amplification together with her supervisor, Prof. Gérard Mourou, as a doctoral student at the University of Rochester, USA, in 1985. Today, the procedure is used in millions of cases all over the world, for example in laser eye surgery.