Nobel Prize female laureates

From 1901 to 2018, only 49 of the 923 Nobel Laureates are women. At the same time, four of them received the prize twice.

The first female prize winner, Marie Curie, was awarded the prize twice, in 1903, in physics (with her husband, Pierre Curie and Henry Becquerel), and in 1911, in chemistry. The daughter Irene Curie, also won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1935. The 2009 was the record as  five women at once received the Nobel Prize, including the first female prize winner in the field of Economics, Elinor Ostrom. In 2014, 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest award winner in the Nobel Prize. There were no female laurels in the last two years. In 2018, three women were awarded the Nobel Prize.

This year, Donna Stirckland from Canada has received a Nobel Prize for Physics for the first time in 55 years, and for the third time in history. She shares this year’s award with American Arthur Ashkin and French Gérard Muro. The prize was awarded for the laser physics discoveries. Particularly, Ashkin has developed a laser technique called “optical lint”, allowing studies in biology. And Muron and Strickland were able to get high intensity and very short impulses.

To note, only 8 female  Nobel Prize winners were awarded in the field of Physics Chemistry. For the first time this year women have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Physics in the same year.

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Yezidi female activist Nadia Murad. She told the world about the incredible atrocities in Iraq and especially the persecution of women and girls.