Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland: Experimental Physics Is Fun! (#380)

I had the pleasure of interviewing the one and only Donna Theo Strickland for our Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner series.

Donna Theo Strickland is a renowned Canadian physicist widely recognized for her groundbreaking contributions to the field of pulsed lasers. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2018 with her colleague Gérard Mourou for the practical implementation of chirped pulse amplification. 

In this fun discussion between two experimental physicists, we talked about the Nobel Prize, the experimental minimum, why physics you can see is the coolest physics, lasers, pedagogy, and much more!

Tune in. 

Key Takeaways: 

Intro (00:00)

How does Donna approach pedagogy? (01:00)

What is the experimental minimum? (04:30)

How did Donna reach her scientific breakthroughs? (06:26)

What discovery won her the Nobel prize? (07:56)

Laser technology (11:28)

Gender inequality in science (15:46)

Do scientists have a moral obligation to communicate science? (19:21)

Final four existential questions (22:53)

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