Thursday, October 4, 2018

Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold win Nobel Prizes

The winners of the Nobel Prizes were announced this week and two women, Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold, have been honored for their extraordinary contributions to the sciences.

On Tuesday, Donna Strickland became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. She's the first woman to win the prize in 55 years.

Here are a select number of articles about Dr. Strickland's win:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/10/02/nobel-prize-physics-awarded-tools-made-light-first-woman-years-honored/?utm_term=.a38c57221bfd

http://time.com/5412840/donna-strickland-nobel-prize-physics/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/science/donna-strickland-nobel-prize-physics.html

A number of articles have been written regarding how Dr. Strickland's win shed's light on society's bias against women in science.

This Atlantic article highlights how she did not have a wikipedia page until she won the Nobel Prize:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/nobel-prize-physics-donna-strickland-gerard-mourou-arthur-ashkin/571909/

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses her Associate Professor status and the steeper slope for women in STEM.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/I-Never-Applied-Nobel/244699

On Wednesday, Frances Arnold became the first American women to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and is just the fifth woman ever to be awarded the prize.

Here are a select number of articles about Dr. Arnold's win:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/frances-arnold-nobel-prize-chemistry_us_5bb4d3d7e4b0876eda9a34ad

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/science/frances-arnold-nobel-prize-chemistry.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06753-y

They are the first women to win in a Nobel Prize in any category since 2015.

Additionally, a number of articles have been written regarding the small number of women who have won these prestigious prizes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nobel-prizes-women-gender-1.4847608

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-women-scientists-undervalued-twin-nobel.html

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/653639583/the-nobel-prize-in-physics-117-years-three-women-and-counting