Guest Presenters
Prof. David Pritchard (MIT):
Professor David E. Pritchard is an Associate Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at MIT. He is also the Green Professor of Physics. Professor Pritchard carried out pioneering experiments on the interaction of atoms with light that led to the creation of the field of atom optics. His demonstration of the diffraction of a beam of atoms by a grating made of light waves opened the way to studies of the diffraction, reflection, and focusing of matter waves, similar to those with light waves. He has applied atom optics to basic studies of quantum theory, to new methods for studying the properties of atoms,and to the creation of devices such as the atom interferometer and atom wave gyroscope.
Professor Pritchard's investigations in atom-light interactions also led him into the field of laser cooling where he made a number of pioneering contributions, including the work that led to the creation of the magneto-optical trap. This device became the workhorse in atom cooling experiments, including most studies of Bose-Einstein condensation. In 1990, he brought Wolfgang Ketterle to MIT as a postdoctoral researcher to work on atom cooling, and stepped aside from that field to allow Ketterle to be appointed to the faculty in 1992. Ketterle pursued atom cooling to achieve Bose- Einstein condensation in 1995, a discovery for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001, along with Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman of JILA, Boulder, CO. Professor Pritchard also mentored Eric Cornell, who was his graduate student.
Professor Pritchard received his B.S. from California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from Harvard. Pritchard joined the faculty of the Department of Physics in 1970. He has many honors, including the Broida Prize of the American Physical Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Optical Society of America.
Prof. Roy J. Glauber (Harvard):
Prof. Roy J. Glauber is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University and Adjunct Professor of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.
Prof. Glauber, in his pioneering work, published in 1963, he created a model for photodetection and explained the fundamental characteristics of different types of light, such as laser light (see coherent state) and light from light bulbs (see blackbody). His theories are widely used in the field of quantum optics.
Prof. Glauber's recent research has dealt with problems in a number of areas of quantum optics, a field which broadly speaking, his studies the quantum electrodynamical interactions of light and matter. He is also continuing work on several topics in high energy collision theory, including the analysis of hadron collisions, and the statistical correlation of particles produced in high-energy reactions.
Prof. Gauber was awarded one half of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence". He did is an undergraduate from Harvard University. After his sophomore year he was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, where (at the age of 18) he was one of the youngest scientists at Los Alamos. After two years, he returned to Harvard, receiving his bachelor's degree and his PhD. Glauber has received many honors for his research, including the A. A. Michelson Medal from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (1985), the Max Born Award from the Optical Society of America (1985), the Dannie Heineman Prize from the American Physical Society (1996).
Prof. Federico Capasso (Harvard):
Prof. Capasso is internationally renowned for his pioneering research on band structure engineering of artificially structured semiconductors and devices, which has opened up new directions in materials research, mesoscopic physics, photonics, electronics, and nanotechnology. He and his collaborators invented and developed the quantum cascade laser, a fundamentally new light source, which is now commercial and has potentially wide ranging applications to trace gas analysis and chemical sensing (atmospheric chemistry, combustion diagnostics, pollution monitoring, industrial process control, medical diagnostics, homeland security) and telecommunications.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering,
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The European Academy of Sciences and honorary membership in the Franklin Institute. He has won many prizes, including: The King Faisal International Prize for Science. The Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science. The IEEE Edison Medal. The Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute. The R. W. Wood prize (OSA). The IEEE Laser and Electro-Optics Society W. Streifer Award. The Materials Research Society Medal. The Rank Prize in Optoelectronics (UK). The Duddell Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics (UK). The Willis Lamb Medal for Laser Science and Quantum Optics. The Newcomb Cleveland Prize (AAAS). The "Leonardo da Vinci" Prize (France). The Welker Memorial Medal (Germany). The New York Academy of Sciences Award, The IEEE David Sarnoff Award in Electronics…
Prof. Keith Nelson (MIT):
Prof. Keith Nelson is a Professor of Chemistry at MIT. His research includes ultrafast spectroscopy of condensed phase structural and chemical rearrangements and the collective degrees of freedom that mediate them. Recent work includes the development of terahertz and optical pulse shaping methods that enable coherent control over collective modes including acoustic phonons, optic phonons and phonon-polaritons, and excitons.
Furthermore, he has developed novel methods for recording complete femto-second time-resolved spectroscopy measurements in a single laser shot, with the objective of observing ultrafast, irreversible structural and chemical changes in solids that are permanently altered during the measurement. As a case in point, he is optimizing coherent spectroscopy methods for use on samples in diamond anvil high-pressure cells, and even for samples under extreme conditions of shock loading.
Prof. Norman Ramsey (Harvard):
Prof. Ramsey received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1989. His work provides the basis for the modern cesium clock which sets the time standard. The circumstances under which negative absolute temperatures1 can occur are discussed, and principles of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics at negative temperatures are developed. Negative temperatures are hotter than positive temperatures. When account is taken of the possibility of negative temperatures, various modifications of conventional
thermodynamics statements are required. The negative temperature concept provided a valuable stimulus for the development of the maser.
1. N. F. Ramsey, Phys. Rev. 103, 20 (1956).
