Professor Donna Strickland made groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics devising a method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses. Her chirped pulse amplification technique, CPA, became standard for subsequent high-intensity lasers. In this technique, first the laser pulses are stretched in time to reduce their peak power, then these pulses are amplified, and finally compressed. If a pulse is compressed in time and becomes shorter, then more light is packed together in the same tiny space – the intensity of the pulse increases dramatically. The uses of Professor Strickland’s technique include the millions of corrective eye surgeries that are conducted every year using the sharpest of laser beams.