The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to

a woman for the first time in 55 years, and for only the third time in its

history.

Donna Strickland, a Canadian physicist, was awarded the 2018 prize jointly with

Gérard Mourou, from France, for their work on generating high-intensity,

ultra-short optical pulses. Strickland said the achievements of women

scientists deserved recognition. "We need to celebrate women physicists

because we’re out there. I’m honored to be one of those women," Strickland

said by video link at a news conference following the announcement in

Stockholm.

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel

Prize in Physics in 1903, recognized for her co-discovery of radiation,

followed by Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963 for discoveries about nuclear

structure.