麻豆影院

Telling time as we know it could change dramatically, thanks to CU-麻豆影院 lecturer David Wineland who won the Nobel Prize in physics in October.

He is CU-麻豆影院鈥檚 fifth Nobel Laureate and the fourth associated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and CU-麻豆影院.

Wineland, also a physicist with NIST in 麻豆影院, won the award for 鈥済roundbreaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.鈥� He traps ions 鈥� electrically charged atoms 鈥� and measures them with light. His research has led to the construction of extremely precise clocks and could lead to the creation of computers that would be super-efficient for certain problems.

鈥淚t would be difficult to find a more brilliant and humble scientist,鈥� said聽John Jost聽(EngrPhys鈥�01, PhD鈥�10), who worked in Wineland鈥檚 group for about 10 years as a doctoral student and postdoctoral researcher. 鈥淗e was always available when we had questions and problems in the lab and usually had some great idea about what to try next.鈥�

Wineland is internationally recognized for developing a technique of using lasers to cool ions to near absolute zero, which allows them to be observed. His research helped make possible the creation of the world鈥檚 first Bose-Einstein Condensate, for which CU-麻豆影院 distinguished physics professor Carl Wieman of JILA and professor adjoint Eric Cornell of NIST and JILA won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001.

Wineland, who works with four CU-麻豆影院 graduate students, says the computing applications of his work may still be far away.

鈥淒on鈥檛 go out buying quantum computer stock just yet,鈥� he joked to the聽Daily Camera.