William Daniel Phillips – is a Distinguished University Professor at University of Maryland and a Fellow of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His research activities include laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms, quantum information with single-atom qubits, atomic-gas Bose-Einstein condensates, atoms in optical lattices, atomic physics analogs of condensed matter systems, coherent de Broglie-wave atom optics and collisions of ultracold atoms.
In particular, Professor Phillips developed new methods for measuring the temperature of laser-cooled atoms. In 1988 he discovered that atoms reached a temperature six times lower than the predicted theoretical limit. Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (École normale supérieure, Paris) refined the theory to explain the new results, and along with W.D. Phillips further investigated methods of trapping atoms cooled to even lower temperatures. These experiments lead to the Nobel Prize for Physics of 1997 awarded jointly to Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light". One result of the development of laser-cooling techniques was the first observation, in 1995 of the Bose-Einstein condensate, a new state of matter originally predicted 70 years earlier by Albert Einstein and the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose. In this state atoms are so chilled and so slow that they, in effect, merge and behave as one single quantum entity that is much larger than any individual atom.
Professor Phillips received also other important awards and honors including Service to America Award, Career Achievement, Presidential Rank Award, NIST Condon and Richtmeyer Awards, Arthur Schawlow Prize in laser science and others. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow and Honorary Member of the Optical Society of America and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.
October 3rd 3:00 p.m. William D. Phillips lecture to the students of the Faculty of Physics of Vilnius University (VU) “Goodbye to the Kilogram: the revolutionary reform of the modern metric system” (P. Brazdžiūnas Great Physics Auditorium, Faculty of Physics, Saulėtekio al. 9). Until 2019, the definition of the kilogram was a single metal object called the International Prototype Kilogram. Today, the unit of mass and all the other units of the metric system are defined by fixing values of natural constants—the greatest revolution in measurement since the French Revolution gave birth to the metric system. This talk will recall some of the intriguing history of how units have been defined in the past, how it is now possible to define them by fixing constants of nature, and why it was necessary to do so.
October 4th 6:00 p.m. William D. Phillips' public lecture "Time, Einstein and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe" (Great Lecture Hall, Life Sciences Centre of VU, Saulėtekio al. 7). At the beginning of the 20th century Einstein changed the way we think about Time. Now, early in the 21st century, the measurement of Time is being revolutionized by the ability to cool a gas of atoms to temperatures millions of times lower than any naturally occurring temperature in the universe. Atomic clocks, the best timekeepers, are one of the scientific and technological wonders of modern life. Such superaccurate clocks are essential to industry, commerce, and science; they are the heart of Satellite Navigation Systems (satnave), which guide cars, airplanes, and hikers to their destinations. Today, the best primary atomic clocks use ultracold atoms, achieve accuracies of a few seconds in 300 million years, while a new generation of atomic clocks is leading us to re-define what we mean by time. Super-cold atoms, with temperatures that can be below a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, use, and allow tests of, some of Einstein's strangest predictions. This will be a lively, multimedia presentation, including exciting experimental demonstrations and down-to- earth explanations about some of today's hottest (and coolest) science. Time, Einstein and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe provides a fun and educational overview on how fundamental research influences our daily life.
The public lecture will be streamed live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgErE2FXCgI
Lectures are public and free of charge.
William Daniel Phillips
Event organizer,
VU distinguished professor Gediminas Juzeliūnas
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