Carl Wieman, PhD

1973 Hertz Fellow
Carl Wieman

Carl Wieman’s persistence served him well in pursuing the research that resulted in winning the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, with Eric Allin Cornell and Wolfgang Ketterle, for the production of the first true Bose-Einstein condensate. Carl served as Associate Director for Science in President Obama’s White House Office of Science and Technology from 2010 to 2013. In 2004, he was named United States Professor of the Year among all doctoral and research universities. Carl, Hertz Fellow 1973, is recognized as a national leader and advocate to improve undergraduate science education and science instruction. His research delves into detailed analysis of how scientists think, and how to most effectively teach this scientific thinking. Carl earned a BS from MIT in 1973, and his PhD from Stanford in 1977. In a 2007 interview with the Nobel committee, Carl describes his life perspective on his all-consuming passions—including science, chess, and tennis. “My view of everything is that you become good at something by focusing and working hard at it.”

Graduate Studies

Stanford University
Lasers, Atomic Physics
Polarization Spectroscopy and the Measurement of the Lamb Shift in the Ground State of Hydrogen

Undergraduate Studies

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Awards

1998, Member, American Academy of Arts & Sciences; 2018, Excellence in Physics Education Award, American Physical Society; 1995, Member, National Academy of Sciences; 1984, Sloan Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; 1999, Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science, American Physical Society; 1990, Guggenheim Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; 1990, Fellow, American Physical Society; 2001, Nobel Prize, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; 2000, Benjamin Franklin Medal, The Franklin Institute; 2017, World Innovation Summit for Education Award, WISE Foundation

Related News

Mar 26, 2019
In 1995, Hertz Fellow Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell unleashed a new era in scientific discovery when they proved a theory that had tantalized scientists for most of a century.
Jun 30, 2016
The Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany awarded Hertz Fellow and Nobel laureate in Physics, Carl Wieman, its international Teaching Award for 2016.