half of the Prize while the other half was shared between Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for their work on chirped-pulse amplification, a technique "now used in laser machining [that] enables doctors to perform millions of corrective laser eye surgeries every year". At 96, Ashkin was the oldest Nobel Prize laureate to be awarded the prize, until John B. Goodenough received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 at the age of 97. He died on September 21, 2020 at the age of 98. References External links Frontiers in Optics 2010. The Optical Society. National Academy of Engineering: Member listing National Academy of Sciences: Member listing Ashkin's Book on Atom Trapping Frederic Ives Medal including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2018 Optical Tweezers and their Application to Biological Systems 1922 births 2020 deaths Scientists from Brooklyn Nobel laureates in Physics American Nobel laureates 21st-century American physicists American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent Optical physicists Columbia College (New York) alumni Cornell University alumni Scientists at Bell Labs Laser researchers Fellows of Optica (society) Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellow Members of the IEEE Jewish physicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering People from Rumson, New Jersey United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army reservists