View source for Wolfgang Ketterle

{{Short description|German physicist (born 1957)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Wolfgang Ketterle
| image             = Ketterle.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = Ketterle at a symposium at Brown University, 2007
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1957|10|21|df=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Heidelberg]], [[West Germany]]
| nationality       = Germany, United States
| fields            = [[Physics]]
| workplaces        = [[University of Heidelberg]]<br />[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Heidelberg]]<br />[[Technical University of Munich]]<br />[[University of Munich]]<br />[[Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Herbert Walther]]<br />[[Hartmut Figger]]
| doctoral_students = [[Martin Zwierlein]]<br />[[Zoran Hadzibabic]]
| known_for         = [[Atom laser]]<br />[[Bose–Einstein condensate]]s<br />[[Spinor condensate]]
| awards            = [[I. I. Rabi Prize]] <small>(1997)</small><br />[[Dannie Heineman Prize (Göttingen)|Dannie Heineman Prize]] <small>(1999)</small><br />[[Fritz London Memorial Prize]] {{small|(1999)}}<br />[[The Franklin Institute Awards|Benjamin Franklin Medal]] <small>(2000)</small><br />[[Nobel Prize for Physics]] <small>(2001)</small><br />[[Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg]] <small>(2002)</small>
}}

'''Wolfgang Ketterle''' ({{IPA|de|ˈvɔlfɡaŋ ˈkɛtɐlə|-|De-Wolfgang Ketterle.ogg}}; born 21 October 1957) is a German [[physicist]] and professor of [[physics]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT). His research has focused on experiments that trap and [[Laser cooling|cool]] [[atom]]s to temperatures close to [[absolute zero]],<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/ketterle_wolfgang.html|title = Wolfgang Ketterle|access-date = 27 October 2014|website = MIT Department of Physics}}</ref> and he led one of the first groups to realize [[Bose–Einstein condensate|Bose–Einstein condensation]] in these systems in 1995.<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-coldest-place-in-the-universe-8121922/|title = The Coldest Place in the Universe|last = Shachtman|first = Tom|date = January 2008|work = Smithsonian Magazine|access-date = 27 October 2014}}</ref> For this achievement, as well as early fundamental studies of condensates, he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 2001, together with [[Eric Allin Cornell]] and [[Carl Wieman]].<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2001/|title = Nobel Prize in Physics 2001|access-date = 27 October 2014|website = Nobelprize.org|publisher = Nobel Media}}</ref>

==Biography==
Ketterle was born in [[Heidelberg]], Baden-Württemberg, and attended school in [[Eppelheim]] and Heidelberg.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url = https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2001/ketterle-bio.html|title = Wolfgang Ketterle – Biographical|access-date = 27 October 2014|website = Nobelprize.org|publisher = Nobel Media}}</ref> In 1976 he entered the [[University of Heidelberg]], before transferring to the [[Technical University of Munich]] two years later, where he gained the equivalent of his master's diploma in 1982.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url = http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/group_info/WK/CV%20WK.pdf|title = Curriculum Vitae – Wolfgang Ketterle|access-date = 27 October 2014|website = Alkali BEC Projects @ MIT|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150426035255/http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/group_info/WK/CV%20WK.pdf|archive-date = 26 April 2015}}</ref> In 1986 he earned a PhD in experimental [[molecular spectroscopy]] under the supervision of Herbert Walther and Hartmut Figger at the [[Max-Planck-Gesellschaft|Max Planck Institute]] for Quantum Optics in [[Garching]], before conducting postdoctoral research at Garching and the University of Heidelberg.<ref name=":1" /> In 1990 he joined the group of [[David E. Pritchard]] in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT (RLE).<ref name=":0" />  He was appointed to the MIT physics faculty in 1993 and, since 1998, he has been [[John D. MacArthur]] Professor of Physics.<ref name=":1" />  In 2006, he was appointed Associate Director of RLE and began serving as director of MIT's Center for Ultracold Atoms.<ref name=":1" />

After achieving [[Bose–Einstein condensation]] in dilute gases in 1995, his group was in 1997 able to demonstrate [[Interference (wave propagation)|interference]] between two colliding condensates,<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/Projects_1997/Interference/Interference_BEC.htm|title = Interference of Two Condensates|access-date = 27 October 2014|website = Alkali BEC Projects @ MIT|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092631/http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/Projects_1997/Interference/Interference_BEC.htm|archive-date = 4 March 2016}}</ref> as well as the first realization of an "[[atom laser]]", the [[atom]]ic analogue of an optical [[laser]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Nobel lecture: When atoms behave as waves: Bose-Einstein condensation and the atom laser|last = Ketterle|first = Wolfgang|date = 20 November 2002|journal = Reviews of Modern Physics|doi = 10.1103/revmodphys.74.1131|volume = 74|issue = 4|pages = 1131–51|bibcode = 2002RvMP...74.1131K|doi-access = free}}</ref>  In addition to ongoing investigations of Bose–Einstein condensates in ultracold atoms, his more recent achievements have included the creation of a [[molecule|molecular]] Bose condensate in 2003,<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/ketterle.html|title = Physicists perform ultracold coup over molecules|date = 18 December 2003|work = MIT News|access-date = 27 October 2014}}</ref> as well as a 2005 experiment providing evidence for "high-temperature" [[superfluidity]] in a [[fermionic condensate]].<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/experimental_setup/BEC_I/Portal.html|title = High-Temperature Superfluidity|access-date = 27 October 2014|website = Atomic Quantum Gases @ MIT|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150908091323/http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/experimental_setup/BEC_I/Portal.html|archive-date = 8 September 2015}}</ref>

Ketterle is also a runner, and was featured in the December 2009 issue of Runner's World's "I'm a Runner".<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://www.runnersworld.com/celebrity-runners/im-runner-wolfgang-ketterle-phd|title = I'm A Runner: Wolfgang Ketterle, Ph.D.|last = Doucleff|first = Michaeleen|date = 3 November 2009|work = Runner's World|access-date = 27 October 2014}}</ref>  Ketterle spoke of taking his running shoes to Stockholm when he received the Nobel Prize and happily running in the early dusk. Ketterle completed the 2013 Boston Marathon with a time of [[List of non-professional marathon runners|2:49:16]],<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://registration.baa.org/2013/cf/public/iframe_TopFinishers.htm|title = 2013 Boston Marathon Top Finishers|access-date = 27 October 2014|website = registration.baa.org}}</ref> and in 2014, in Boston, ran a personal record of 2:44:06.

Ketterle serves on the board of trustees of the [[Center for Excellence in Education]] (CEE),<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.cee.org/board-trustees|title = Board of Trustees|access-date = 27 October 2014|website = Center for Excellence in Education}}</ref> and participates in the Distinguished Lecture Series of CEE's flagship program for high-school students, the [[Research Science Institute]] (RSI), which Ketterle's own son Jonas attended in 2003. Ketterle sits on the International Scientific Advisory Committee of Australia's [[ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies]].<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.fleet.org.au/team/?mgc_91=92/advisory-committees&mgi_91=776/wolfgang-ketterle|title = Prof Ketterle biography|access-date = 9 November 2017|website = Centre for Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies}}</ref>

Ketterle is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President [[George W. Bush]] in May 2008, urging him to "reverse the damage done to basic science research in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill" by requesting additional emergency funding for the [[United States Department of Energy|Department of Energy]]'s [[Office of Science]], the [[National Science Foundation]], and the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Letter from America's Physics Nobel Laureates|url=https://fire.pppl.gov/nobel_bush_fy08_050808.pdf}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Ketterle has been married to Michèle Plott since 2011. He has five children, three with Gabriele Ketterle, to whom he was married from 1985 to 2001.<ref>{{cite web |title=Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Ketterle: CV |url=https://mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/laureates/ketterle/cv |work=lindau-nobel.org |date=15 January 2019 |access-date=2023-09-07}}</ref>

==Publications==
*{{cite journal |author1=K. B. Davis |author2=M. O. Mewes |author3=M. R. Andrews |author4=N. J. van Druten |author5=D. S. Durfee |author6=D. M. Kurn |author7=W. Ketterle |name-list-style=amp |title=Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Gas of Sodium Atoms |journal=Physical Review Letters |date=27 November 1995 |volume=75 |issue=22 |pages=3969–3973 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.3969 |pmid=10059782 |bibcode=1995PhRvL..75.3969D |s2cid=975895 |url=https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2240248/27877_126335y.pdf |access-date=4 July 2019 |archive-date=10 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810084951/https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2240248/27877_126335y.pdf }}
*{{cite journal |author1=M. R. Andrews |author2=C. G. Townsend |author3=H.-J. Miesner |author4=D. S. Durfee |author5=D. M. Kurn |author6=W. Ketterle  |name-list-style=amp | title= Observation of interference between two Bose condensates | journal=Science | year=1997 | volume=275 | pages=637–641 | doi=10.1126/science.275.5300.637 | pmid= 9005843 | issue=5300|citeseerx=10.1.1.38.8970 |s2cid=38284718 }}
*{{cite journal |author1=M. O. Mewes |author2=M. R. Andrews |author3=D. M. Kurn |author4=D. S. Durfee |author5=C. G. Townsend |author6=W. Ketterle  |name-list-style=amp | title=Output Coupler for Bose-Einstein Condensed Atoms | journal=Physical Review Letters | date=27 January 1997 | volume=78 |issue=4 | pages=582–585
 | doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.582 | bibcode=1997PhRvL..78..582M|s2cid=9560538 }}
*{{cite journal |author1=M. W. Zwierlein |author2=C. A. Stan |author3=C. H. Schunck |author4=S. M. F. Raupach |author5=S. Gupta |author6=Z. Hadzibabic |author7=W. Ketterle  |name-list-style=amp | title=Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules | journal=Physical Review Letters | year=2003 | volume=91 | article-number=250401  | doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.250401 | pmid=14754098 | issue=25 | bibcode=2003PhRvL..91y0401Z|arxiv = cond-mat/0311617 |s2cid=8342544 }}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture 8 December 2001 "When Atoms Behave as Waves: Bose-Einstein Condensation and the Atom Laser"
* [http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/ketterle_wolfgang.html Ketterle at MIT]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060430182714/http://www.rle.mit.edu/rleonline/people/WolfgangKetterle.html Ketterle at RLE]
* [http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/2001/ketterle-interview.html Video Interview]
* [http://www.esi-topics.com/bose/interviews/WolfgangKetterle.html Text interview]
* [http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/interview-steven-chu Interview at American Scientist]

{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 2001-2025}}
{{2001 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ketterle, Wolfgang}}
[[Category:1957 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century German physicists]]
[[Category:21st-century German physicists]]
[[Category:Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates]]
[[Category:Fellows of Optica (society)]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:German Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Heidelberg University alumni]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physics]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg]]
[[Category:Scientists from Heidelberg]]
[[Category:Studienstiftung alumni]]
[[Category:Technical University of Munich alumni]]