Wiley Author Wins Nobel Prize
Wiley author Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, together with two other scientists, received the 1997 Nobel prize for physics in October. The physics prize was awarded to 64-year-old Cohen-Tannoudji of France, along with Americans Steven Chu and William Phillips, for their newly developed methods of using lasers to cool and trap gas atoms.
Between 1988 and 1995, Dr. Cohen-Tannoudji and a team of researchers at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, conducted experiments which were based on the earlier findings of Chu and Phillips. Dr. Cohen-Tannoudji and his colleagues were able to reduce the speed of atoms by lowering the temperature of atoms in a vacuum to one-millionth of a degree above absolute zero. At this nearly freezing temperature, atomic movement drops to less than one mile per hour, from as much as 2,500 miles per hour at room temperature. The laser light used to cool the atoms acts as a thick liquid, known as "optical molasses," which slows down atoms to speeds at which they can be studied.
Increased understanding of atomic movement may result in the development of highly accurate atomic clocks which can be used for navigational purposes on earth and in space. Dr. Cohen-Tannoudji's research has already lead to important findings, such as the discovery of a new form of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate, which Albert Einstein theorized, but never proved the existence of, more than 70 years ago.
Dr. Cohen-Tannoudji's extensive research is chronicled in Wiley books, including Atom-Photon Interactions: Basic Processes and Applications, Photons and Atoms: Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics, and Quantum Mechanics, Volumes One and Two.
Born in Algeria, Dr. Cohen-Tannoudji received his Ph.D. in 1962 from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He is currently a professor at the College de France and the Ecole Normale Superieure.