A 96-year-old Rumson resident who worked at Bell Laboratories for over 40 years won the Nobel Prize in Physics last week for his work with lasers. Arthur Ashkin, of Rumson, was awarded half the $1.01 million prize. The award was shared by Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada. Rumson Mayor Joe Hemphill visited Mr. Ashkin last week to congratulate him on this very special recognition on behalf of all the residents in Rumson.
According to Wikipedia:
Arthur Ashkin (born September 2, 1922) is an American scientist and Nobel laureate who worked at Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies. Ashkin has been considered by many as the father of the topical field of optical tweezers, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018. He resides in Rumson, New Jersey.
Ashkin started his work on manipulation of microparticles with laser light in the late 1960s which resulted in the invention of optical tweezers in 1986. He also pioneered the optical trapping process that eventually was used to manipulate atoms, molecules, and biological cells. The key phenomenon is the radiation pressure of light; this pressure can be dissected down into optical gradient and scattering forces.