WATERLOO — University of Waterloo professor and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics Donna Strickland is now a full professor, the university confirmed Thursday.

In a Tuesday BBC Radio interview with host Phil Williams, Strickland said she received the promotion a week ago.

"I've now been encouraged by many people to apply and so I did apply and I have now been made, full professor. I'm happy about that," she said.

The 59-year-old Waterloo resident was awarded the prize in early October along with her former PhD supervisor Gérard Mourou, for their groundbreaking work in the field of laser physics. The two developed a laser technique called Chirped Pulse Amplification and first wrote about it in a 1985 paper. A third person, Arthur Ashkin of the United States, also won the prize for a separate invention.

When the award was announced there was much attention paid to Strickland being an associate professor and not a full professor. In an interview with The Record on Oct. 3, she said she just hadn't applied. As an associate professor, she had tenure and was full-time.

"This is what people I don't think get, a full professor although it's a different name it doesn't carry necessarily a pay raise and I don't lose my job (if I don't apply to be a full professor)," Strickland said at the time. "So I never filled out the paper work."

Strickland is UW's first Nobel laureate and is the third woman in history to be awarded the prize in physics. Maria Goeppert-Mayer won in 1963 and Marie Curie in 1903.