[4] 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.

Isadore (né Aschkinase)[9] had emigrated to the United States from Odessa (then Russian Empire, now Ukraine), at the age of 18.

[10][11][12][13] Within a decade of his landing in New York, Isadore had become a U.S. citizen and was running a dental laboratory at 139 Delancey Street in Manhattan.

[14] Ashkin met his wife, Aline, at Cornell University, and they were married for over 60 years with three children and five grandchildren.

[15] She was a chemistry teacher at Holmdel High School, and their son Michael Ashkin, is an art professor at Cornell University.

This led to Arthur Ashkin's introduction to Hans Bethe, Richard Feynman and others who were at Cornell at the time.

[1][2] On October 2, 2018, Arthur Ashkin was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on optical trapping.

[25] Ashkin "was honoured for his invention of 'optical tweezers' that grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells with their laser beam fingers.