Pope appoints new member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

By Vatican News staff writer

Pope Francis has appointed Nobel prize laureate, Professor Donna Theo Strickland, as an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Strickland is a professor of optical physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and was one of the recipients of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Curriculum vitae

Born on May 27, 1959 in Guelph, Canada, Prof. Donna Strickland holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from McMaster University in Hamilton,Canada, and a PhD in Physics, with a specialization in Optics, from the University of Rochester, USA.

In 2018, Strickland and Prof. Gérard Mourou were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing chirped pulse amplification for lasers, research they published in 1985. Currently, she is a member of The Optical Society, where she served as the Vice President (2011) and President (2013); and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.