Opinion: by combatting bias, we can achieve parity for women in science awards

摘要

Aflurry of phone calls and text messages erupted at 6:00AM EST on 2 October 2018 at The Optical Society (OSA) as we learned that three OSA Fellows: Drs. Donna Strickland, Gerard Mourou, and Arthur Ashkin were the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. The society staff quickly provided content to the world media; photographs, biographies, published papers and video interviews to respond to requests about their discoveries, along with their personal and professional stories. Then the first of many comments and observations poured in. Donna Strickland was only the third woman to have won the Physics prize since it was first awarded in 1901. Questions as to why Donna did not have a Wikipedia page or why she was not a full professor at the University of Waterloo put the community on the defensive.