Nobel laureate Prof. Donna Strickland was among a group of outstanding women science workers who graced the 2021 Rose in Science event held on International Women’s Day in Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Rose in Science is an annual event aimed at celebrating women’s achievements in science and encouraging more young women to take up science as a career. Successful women science workers are invited to tell their stories, as organizers hope their experiences can imbue other women researchers, especially those at the start of their careers, with more confidence both in their research work and themselves personally.

Seven women science workers were invited as guest speakers at this year’s Rose in Science, which has the theme of “Rose in Science, Lighting the World”. The biggest name is Prof. Strickland from Canada’s Waterloo University, who was awarded Nobel Prize for Physics in 2018 and only the third woman to win the prize after Marie Curie and Maria Goeppert Mayer.

The other guests were also well known names in the international physics circle, including Ms. Liz Rogan, CEO of The Optical Society (OSA); Prof. Carmen Menoni of Colorado State University, president of the IEEE Photonics Society; Prof. Johanna Stachel of Heidelberg University, who was the first female president of the German Physical Society; Prof. Leda Lunardi of North Carolina University, chair of the IEEE Fellow Committee; Prof. Haixia Zhang of Peking University, founder of the iCANX Talks platform; and Prof. Miso Kim of SungKyunkwan University in South Korea.

During the event, chaired by Ms. Hui Wang of CIOMP and streamed live on the iCANX Talks platform, the guest speakers answered questions about their work and personal life and gave advice to an audience which included young female science students and junior researchers on site at CIOMP, as well as a global audience who watched it online, including many famous scientists and researchers. Not all guests were able to make personal appearances. Prof. Strickland gave her answers in text form and Ms. Rogan in pre-recorded video clips.

Rose in Science was launched by CIOMP in 2015 to mark the International Year of Light. The event has since been organized annually. This year’s event is the largest so far with more than 60,000 audiences online.

This year’s Rose in Science event was planned and organized by CIOMP, collaborating with The Optical Society (OSA), IEEE Photonics Society, iCANX Talks and Light: Science & Applications.

You can watch a recording of this year’s Rose in Science event via the following link: https://wx.vzan.com/live/tvchat-1255323308?v=1614758108414#/

Rose in Science Activity（Photo by CIOMP）