{"id":"arthur-ashkin","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/arthur-ashkin","language":"en","name":"Arthur Ashkin","name_en":"Arthur Ashkin","name_ne":null,"description":"American physicist (1922-2020)","headline":"American physicist (1922-2020)","also_known_as":[],"summary":"Arthur Ashkin (September 2, 1922 – September 21, 2020) was an American scientist and Nobel laureate who worked at Bell Labs. Ashkin has been considered by many as the father of optical tweezers,","summary_more":["for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 at age 96, becoming the oldest Nobel laureate until 2019 when John B. Goodenough was awarded at 97. He resided 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."],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"2 September 1922","date":"1922-09-02"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Brooklyn","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18419"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472#P19"}},{"key":"died","label":"Died","values":[{"text":"21 September 2020","date":"2020-09-21"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472#P570"}},{"key":"deathplace","label":"Place of death","values":[{"text":"Rumson","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1087523"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472#P20"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"United States","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"physicist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q169470"},{"text":"researcher","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1650915"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472#P106"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"Cornell University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49115","end":"1952"},{"text":"Columbia University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49088"},{"text":"James Madison High School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6138769"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472#P69"}},{"key":"awards","label":"Awards","values":[{"text":"Frederic Ives Medal","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1452721","date":"1998"},{"text":"Harvey Prize","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1587906","date":"2004"},{"text":"IEEE Quantum Electronics Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2122261","date":"1987"},{"text":"Charles Hard Townes Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1064731","date":"1988"},{"text":"National Inventors Hall of Fame","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1366018","date":"2013"},{"text":"Fellow of the American Physical Society","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41955909"},{"text":"Nobel Prize in Physics","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q38104","date":"2018"},{"text":"Fellow of the Optical Society","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7072982"},{"text":"IEEE Fellow","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q111734"},{"text":"Joseph F. Keithley Award For Advances in Measurement Science","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55615329","date":"2003"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472#P166"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ashkin","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Arthur Ashkin born?","a":"Arthur Ashkin was born on 2 September 1922 in Brooklyn."},{"q":"Where did Arthur Ashkin study?","a":"Arthur Ashkin was educated at Cornell University, Columbia University, James Madison High School."}],"related":[{"name":"Jan Koum","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/jan-koum"},{"name":"Joe Gebbia","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/joe-gebbia"},{"name":"Luke Nosek","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/luke-nosek"},{"name":"Miriam Adelson","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/miriam-adelson"},{"name":"Adam Riess","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/adam-riess"},{"name":"Alan J. Heeger","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alan-j-heeger"},{"name":"Alfred G. Gilman","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alfred-g-gilman"},{"name":"Alfred Hershey","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alfred-hershey"},{"name":"Allan MacLeod Cormack","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/allan-macleod-cormack"},{"name":"Andrea M. Ghez","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrea-m-ghez"},{"name":"Andrew Fire","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrew-fire"},{"name":"Andrew Schally","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrew-schally"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/arthur-ashkin-02e011994d.jpg","width":500,"height":668,"license":"CC BY 2.0","credit":"Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Ashkin_EM1B5678_(44417135450).jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Arthur Ashkin","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ashkin","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q708472","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708472","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Arthur Ashkin EM1B5678 (44417135450).jpg by Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden (CC BY 2.0)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Ashkin_EM1B5678_(44417135450).jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Arthur Ashkin, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Arthur Ashkin EM1B5678 (44417135450).jpg — Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden, CC BY 2.0.","cite":"\"Arthur Ashkin\". DigiNepal. Last updated 1 November 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/arthur-ashkin. Retrieved 5 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-11-01T06:59:19Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-05","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/arthur-ashkin","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/arthur-ashkin","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/arthur-ashkin?lang=ne"}}