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PARIS – When Canadian scientist Donna Strickland received the phone call early in the morning, informing her that she had just won the Nobel Prize in Physics, she could barely hide from her wonder.
New Nobel laureate Donna Strickland (C) honored for her pioneering work on laser pulses
Not only had she won one of the most prestigious honors of science – her pioneering work on laser pulses had earned her fame in the world of physics – but also the fact that she was the most One of three women to have won this award from over 100 year history.
"It's all, really ?!" she asked the public gathered Tuesday morning in the room decorated with wooden panels of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
"Well, OK, I thought there might be more but I could not think."
In becoming the first woman Nobel laureate in physics for 55 years, Strickland has been praised by her peers for celebrating the pioneering work of women scientists around the world.
"There are women doing excellent research in all kinds of fields," Roisin Owens, an engineer in biochemistry at Cambridge University, told AFP.
She said that while it was historically true that far fewer women than men were working in research, the scientific community needed to awaken the demographic evolution of the field.
"Sometimes people look in their own room echo, but the excuse" we could not find any woman (to reward) "no longer wash."
The Nobel Committee has awarded physics prizes since 1901, the only women winners before Strickland were Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963.
– & # 39; The change occurs & # 39; –
Jessica Wade, a researcher at the physics department and the plastic electronics center at Imperial College London, was so fed up that the women on the ground were forgotten that she spent the night. last year to add 270 Wikipedia entries on women scientists.
She admits that the scientific community has made some progress on gender disparities – "measures to help women return from maternity leave, shared parental leave, policies to prevent sexual harassment and bullying" – .
"There is also a growing and troubling area of society that politicians and contemporary social media can propagate old-fashioned and sexist views," she said.
European particle physics laboratory CERN suspended a scientist this week after hinting that physics was "built by men" and accused women of seeking specialized jobs without proper qualifications.
Alessandro Strumia of the University of Pisa shocked the audience of the Geneva laboratory during a workshop on High Energy Theory and Gender.
For Patricia Rankin, a professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the suspension of Strumia was an example of "change occurring" in efforts to combat absolute sexism in the scientific field.
But, she added, "I think there is a long list of obstacles that women have to overcome, including unconscious biases, different expectations, and time constraints."
– Physics "built by men"? –
The Swedish Academy said on Tuesday that it was encouraging more people to nominate women for their science awards, "because we do not want to miss anyone."
According to Jennifer Curtis, associate professor of physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, "rewards spawn rewards … an important way to promote women physicists is to make sure to name them".
She said it was "fantastic" that Strickland was finally recognized.
– & # 39; Celebrate women scientists & # 39; –
Wade highlighted the work of Dawn Shaughnessy, the American radiochemist who discovered five elements of the periodic table, which has not yet been formally honored by a Nobel.
In addition, according to Andrea Welsh, a PhD student in physics at Georgia Tech, women scientists were far less likely to seek nominations than their male counterparts.
"Offering yourself (for yourself) at a price that credits you for work already done is very different from offering you more work, especially in an area where your work is generally undervalued, where you are spoken Frequently, where there is no one else says you deserve something more, "she told AFP.
For Owens, the fact that Nobels are awarded to individual rather than team efforts could be another reason for the low number of winning women.
"My feeling is that women often work for the collective good and can often sacrifice their individual careers to advance the community," she said.
Last month, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, one of the world's leading astrophysicists who helped discover pulsars, announced that she had donated $ 3 million worth of a prestigious scientific award to help under-represented groups get into physics.
"There are so many women scientists and fantastic engineers and we have to spend more time celebrating them," said Wade.
"Support the professional development of young women, give them the opportunity to talk and network, coach them and nominate them for prizes, Nobel and others."
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