Title:Three Scientific Seeds that Bore Astonishing Fruit
Speaker: Daniel Kleppner (MIT)
Date/Time: October 15, 2014 Wednesday at 13:40
Place: Sabancı University, FENS G029

Abstract: In their infancy there is no way to judge the importance of a new idea. Occasionally an idea flourishes and spawns a new field. I will describe three such cases: the origins of atomic clocks, Rydberg atoms and cavity quantum electrodynamics, and Bose-Einstein condensation in atomic quantum fluids.

Biography: Daniel Kleppner, born 1932, is the Lester Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Physics at MIT and co-director of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms. He is the winner of the 2005 Wolf Prize in Physics, and the 2007 Frederic Ives Medal. Prof. Kleppner has also been awarded the National Medal of Science (2006). Together with Robert J. Kolenkow, he authored a popular introductory mechanics textbook for advanced students. Kleppner graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in 1953, Cambridge University with a B.A. in 1955, and Harvard University with a Ph.D. in 1959.

Contact: Ismet Inonu Kaya iikaya@sabanciuniv.edu