Eric Allin Cornell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Eric Allin Cornell
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Cornell in June 2015
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| Born | December 19, 1961 |
| Alma mater | Stanford University (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
| Known for | Bose–Einstein condensation |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Colorado Boulder National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) JILA |
| Thesis | Mass spectroscopy using single ion cyclotron resonance (1990) |
| Doctoral advisor | David E. Pritchard |
Eric Allin Cornell (born December 19, 1961) is an American scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is famous for creating something called a Bose–Einstein condensate in 1995. He did this with his fellow scientist, Carl E. Wieman. Later, they shared the Nobel Prize in 2001 with Wolfgang Ketterle for this amazing discovery.
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About Eric Cornell
Eric Cornell was born in Palo Alto, California, in 1961. His parents were studying at Stanford University nearby. When he was two, his family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father was a professor at MIT. Eric grew up there with his younger brother and sister. Sometimes, they lived in other places like Berkeley, California, and Lisbon, Portugal, when his dad was on sabbatical.
Eric went to Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Before he finished high school, he moved back to California. He graduated from Lowell High School in San Francisco. This school was known for its smart students.
College and Early Career
After high school, Eric went to Stanford University. There, he met his future wife, Celeste Landry. To earn money, he worked as an assistant in labs that studied low-temperature physics. He was good at his classes and his lab jobs. It seemed like he would become a physicist.
However, Eric wasn't sure if he wanted to be a physicist. He thought about studying literature or politics instead. He took nine months off from college. During this time, he went to China and Taiwan. He volunteered to teach English and learned Chinese. When he returned to Stanford, he decided to focus on physics. He graduated with honors in 1985.
For his advanced studies, Eric went back to MIT. He joined a group that was trying to measure the mass of a tiny particle called the electron neutrino. Even though he couldn't find the exact mass, Eric earned his PhD in 1990.
Creating the Bose-Einstein Condensate
After getting his PhD, Eric joined Carl Wieman at the University of Colorado Boulder. He worked as a researcher on a small experiment using laser cooling. This is a way to make atoms extremely cold using lasers.
During his two years there, Eric came up with a big idea. He wanted to combine laser cooling with another method called evaporative cooling. He planned to use a magnetic trap to create a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC). This is a special state of matter that only happens at super-cold temperatures.
Based on his idea, he got a permanent job at JILA/NIST in Boulder. In 1995, Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman made history. They successfully created the first Bose-Einstein condensate! This was a huge breakthrough in physics.
For this amazing achievement, Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. Later, in 1997, another scientist named Deborah S. Jin joined Eric's team. She led the group that created a similar state of matter called a fermionic condensate in 2003.
Today, Eric Cornell is still a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His lab is at JILA.
Awards and Honors
Eric Cornell has received many important awards for his work. The most famous is the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001.
- Nobel Prize in Physics, 2001
- Member, National Academy of Sciences, 2000
- R. W. Wood Prize, 1999
- Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, 1999
- Lorentz Medal, 1998
- King Faisal International Prize in Science, 1997
- National Science Foundation Alan T. Waterman Award, 1997
- Carl Zeiss Award, 1996
- Fritz London Prize in Low Temperature Physics, 1996
- Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, 1996
Personal Life
Eric Cornell married Celeste Landry in 1995. This was just a few months before his big experiment with the Bose-Einstein condensate succeeded. They have two daughters, born in 1996 and 1998.
In 2004, Eric had a serious infection. He recovered and returned to work in 2005. He enjoys running and has participated in the Bolder Boulder race several times since moving to Boulder in 1990.
See also
In Spanish: Eric A. Cornell para niños
