Falling Walls Breakthrough Conversation with Donna Strickland

Donna Strickland is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo and is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification with Gérard Mourou, her PhD supervisor at the time. They published this Nobel-winning research in 1985 when Strickland was a PhD student at the University of Rochester. In 1997, she joined the University of Waterloo, where her ultrafast laser group develops high-intensity laser systems for nonlinear optics investigations. Strickland served as the president of the Optical Society (OSA) in 2013 and is a fellow of OSA, SPIE, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society.

Image Credit: University of Waterloo

Dr Adam Levy is a science journalist and climate change communicator.  They have produced award winning scientific films and podcasts for publications such as Nature, Scientific American and PBS.  They have a doctorate in atmospheric physics, and created ClimateAdam, a YouTube channel that makes climate change engaging and accessible.  Adam has hosted interviews for Falling Walls since 2016, but this is the first year they have had the opportunity to speak with each and every winner.