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| Weronika Cygan |<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Nobel Prizes have been awarded every year since 1901. By 2022, as many as 221 people were awarded in the field of physics. However, this number includes only four women. One of them, Prof. Donna Strickland, will be a guest on the Scientific Premiere Stage.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n Considering only the above number, we could think that the exact sciences, and especially physics, is a world dominated by men. It is only after taking a closer look at the history of science that we realise how great a contribution to the development of the discipline was made by outstanding and determined female researchers. Unfortunately, many of them never received due recognition during their lifetime.<\/p>\n Chien-Shiung Wu, called the \u2018First Lady of Physics\u2019, was close to receiving the Nobel Prize. The Chinese-born scientist conducted her research in the USA; in the 1940s, she devoted her life to conducting studies on the beta decay of an atomic nucleus. Her meticulously conducted experiments proved the hypothesis made by her compatriots \u2013 Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang. While the discovery was appreciated, however, Wu was not.\u00a0 The Nobel Committee awarded Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang in 1957 and entirely overlooked Chien-Shiung Wu; had it not been for her, the theory would have remained barely a concept written down on a piece of paper.<\/p>\n Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a British astrophysicist, was wronged in a similar way. Although the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974 was awarded for the pioneering research and the discovery of pulsars, it was not the brilliant researcher who received it, but her mentor \u2013 Antony Hewish. On the other hand, the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner never won the Nobel for the discovery of nuclear fission, although Otto Hahn was awarded for the very same achievement, although in Chemistry.\u00a0<\/p>\n This brief description shows that the role of women in science is greater than the numbers informing about the awards given to them would suggest. Fortunately, as herstory<\/em> is on the roll, the role of female researchers in shaping the scientific landscape slowly begins to receive its due recognition.<\/p>\n \n<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \u2018It is the one time in my life that I worked very, very hard!,\u2019 claimed Strickland in a jokey kind of way in 2018, when, together with G\u00e9rard Mourou, she received the Nobel Prize for \u2018their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.\u2019<\/p>\n When she graduated, she was one of only three women in a class of 25; it must have been tough. Nothing, however, discouraged the researcher from following the scientific path of her career. \u2018Do what you love and what you think you are good at,\u2019 she advises not only women, but anyone wondering whether they should quit their dreams due to societal or cultural pressure.<\/p>\nRobbed of the Nobel Prize<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Give women a chance for development<\/strong><\/h3>\n