For Immediate Release
February 14, 2001
Contacts: Lee Tune, (301) 405-4679 or ltune@accmail.umd.edu;
Michael Baum, National Institute of Standards and Technology (301) 975-2763 or michael.baum@nist.gov

NIST Physics Nobel Laureate to Establish
World-Class Research Group At Maryland

COLLEGE PARK, MD -- The University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today announced that NIST physicist and 1997 Nobel Laureate William Phillips will lead the formation of a world-class atomic, molecular and optical (AMO) physics group at Maryland.

Although Phillips has been an adjunct professor for some time, he is the first Nobel Laureate to be appointed to a full faculty position at the university. Phillips will spearhead the hiring of top AMO scientists to join the university group and will lead its formation and development while continuing to work in the NIST Physics Laboratory as a NIST Fellow and head of its laser cooling and trapping group. His appointment as a faculty member in the university's department of physics begins July 1.

According to Phillips, the university group's research will explore the newest areas of AMO physics and also will focus on fundamental questions. In recent years, studies of the interaction of light with matter have led to ways to "trap" atoms and molecules and cool them to near absolute zero, revealing fundamental quantum properties and new states of matter, and opening up potential applications in high-resolution spectroscopy, atomic clocks, quantum information systems and atomic-scale and nano-scale fabrication.

"Research in the fields of laser cooling, Bose-Einstein condensation, atom optics, quantum information, and related areas is expanding so rapidly that opportunities for new directions abound," Phillips said. "The new AMO physics group at the university is an exciting, important expansion of our interactions with the University of Maryland, and I have great expectations for the future of this collaboration. "

The group will include three new faculty members who are leaders in experimental and theoretical AMO physics. Phillips will assist the group in determining research directions, developing research collaborations, and recruiting graduate students.

"The university is excited to welcome such an accomplished, exciting and leading physicist to our campus," said University of Maryland President C.D. Mote, Jr. "Bill Phillips and the new atomic, molecular and optical physics group he will lead will strengthen both our already top-class department of physics and the world-class laboratory at NIST."

Phillips and two co-recipients, Steven Chu of Stanford University and Claude Cohen- Tannoudji, Collège de France and École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France, won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in the field of laser cooling and trapping of atoms. According to the Royal Swedish Academy for the Sciences, their work "has meant a breakthrough for both theory and experiment within the field and has led to a deeper understanding of the interaction between light and matter."

The NIST Physics Laboratory is an internationally recognized center of research in atomic, molecular and optical physics. Accomplishments include the creation of a Bose-Einstein condensate, a new form of matter; the demonstration of non-linear atom optics, a new field of physics; and the development of NIST F-1, one of the most accurate atomic clocks in the world.

"Dr.--now also Professor--Phillips and the new atomic, molecular and optical group at the University of Maryland are building on a long and fruitful history of interactions between the Department of Physics and NIST," said NIST Physics Laboratory director Katharine Gebbie. "We're very pleased to have this chance to expand both our partnership and our mutual opportunities to explore this rapidly moving field of science, especially since AMO physics continues to have a very large impact on metrology and standards and on the U.S. economy."

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