The Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to a woman for the first time in 55 years

Dr. Donna Strickland is only the third woman winner of the award, along with Marie Curie, who won in 1903, and Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who was awarded the prize in 1963. She shares this year’s prize with Arthur Ashkin, from the US, and Gerard Mourou, from France, for their discoveries in the field of laser physics.