Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to only three women since 1901; know who they are

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 6 announced the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. The award went to Roger Penrose for the discovery that black hole formation, and jointly to Max Planck and Andrea Ghez for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy. Last year the award was won by Canadian-born cosmologist James Peebles for theoretical work about the early moments after the Big Bang, and Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for discovering a planet outside our solar system.  

But did you know that only three women so far have won the prestigious award since it was first given in 1901? The three women to have won the award are Marie Curie in 1903, Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963, and Donna Strickland in 2018. 

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Marie Curie - 1903

Marie Curie was a Polish-French physicist who won the Nobel prize in physics for her pioneering research in radioactivity. She became the first person and only woman to win the Nobel prize twice and the only person to win it in two scientific fields. She was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of two elements, polonium, and radium. She was so proud of the Polish identity that she named polonium after that. 

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Maria Goeppert Mayer - 1963

German-American scientist Maria Goeppert Mayer became the second person in 1963 to receive the Nobel prize in physics. She was given the award for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus. She developed a mathematical model for the structure of nuclear shells. She had earned her doctorate for writing a thesis on the theory of possible two-photon absorption by atoms. It was difficult to prove it through an experiment at that time but later on when the laser was developed the thesis was proved. 

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Donna Strickland - 2018

Canadian physicist Donna Strickland became the third woman to win the Nobel prize in physics in 2018. She was awarded the prize for the practical implementation of chirped pulse amplification along with fellow French scientist Gerard Albert Mourou.

Nobel prize

The Nobel prize, which is given in honour of Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, comes with a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor, which is more than $1.1 million. Each prize can be shared by three laureates at the most. The Laureates are announced every year in mid-October immediately after they have been chosen and the awarding ceremony takes place on December 10, on the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel.

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