Eric Allin Cornell
Eric Allin Cornell arrived in Palo Alto, California on the 19th of December 1961. His parents were finishing their graduate studies at Stanford University nearby. Two years later the family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. There his father taught civil engineering at MIT. Young Eric grew up with a younger brother and sister during these years. They spent year-long stints in Berkeley, California and Lisbon, Portugal. These travels accompanied his father while he took sabbaticals from work. In Cambridge he attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. The year before graduation he returned to California. He finished high school at San Francisco's Lowell High School. This magnet school served academically talented students.
Cornell enrolled at Stanford University after high school. He met his future wife Celeste Landry there as an undergraduate. He earned money working as an assistant in low-temperature physics groups on campus. Halfway through his undergraduate years he traveled to China and Taiwan for nine months. He volunteered teaching conversational English and studied Chinese language. He returned to Stanford intending to study physics again. He graduated with honors and distinction in 1985. For graduate school he went back to MIT. He joined David Pritchard's group which measured electron neutrino mass. Cornell obtained his PhD in 1990 despite failing to determine that specific mass value. After his doctorate he joined Carl Wieman at the University of Colorado Boulder. They worked on a small laser cooling experiment together. During two years as a postdoc he devised a plan to combine laser cooling and evaporative cooling. This method used a magnetic trap to create a Bose-Einstein condensate. Based on this proposal he received a permanent position at JILA/NIST in Boulder. In 1995 Cornell and Wieman gave the George Gamow Memorial Lecture. They synthesized the first Bose-Einstein condensate that same year.
Cornell, Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. The award recognized their synthesis of the first Bose-Einstein condensate. He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1998 by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005. He is currently a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He also serves as a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His lab remains located at JILA. He received the R. W. Wood Prize from the Optical Society of America in 1999. The Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics followed him in 1999. He won the I. I. Rabi Prize in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics in 1997. The King Faisal International Prize in Science honored his work in 1997. He received the Department of Commerce Gold Medal in 1996. The Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering came to him in 1996.
Cornell married Celeste Landry in 1995 mere months before the BEC experiment succeeded. Their first daughter arrived in 1996 and their second in 1998. In October 2004 his left arm and shoulder were amputated. Doctors performed this surgery to stop the spread of necrotizing fasciitis. He was discharged from the hospital in mid-December after recovering from the infection. He returned to work part-time in April 2005. News reports noted he had run in the Bolder Boulder several times since moving to Boulder in 1990. He participated in that race most recently in 2022. This physical challenge did not end his scientific career or his leadership roles.
Deborah S. Jin joined Cornell's group at JILA in 1997. She led the team that produced the fermionic condensate in 2003. Cornell continues his work as a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder today. He remains a physicist at the United States Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology. His lab is located at JILA where he conducts research. He holds patents including the Nobel Lecture the 8th of December 2001 Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Dilute Gas. The lecture covers the first 70 years and some recent experiments. He maintains an active presence in the physics community through these ongoing projects.
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Common questions
When and where was Eric Allin Cornell born?
Eric Allin Cornell arrived in Palo Alto, California on the 19th of December 1961. His parents were finishing their graduate studies at Stanford University nearby.
What major scientific achievement did Eric Allin Cornell accomplish with Carl Wieman?
Cornell and Wieman synthesized the first Bose-Einstein condensate that same year in 1995. They worked on a small laser cooling experiment together to devise this method using a magnetic trap.
Who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Eric Allin Cornell in 2001?
Cornell, Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. The award recognized their synthesis of the first Bose-Einstein condensate.
Why was Eric Allin Cornell's left arm amputated in October 2004?
Doctors performed surgery to stop the spread of necrotizing fasciitis. He was discharged from the hospital in mid-December after recovering from the infection.
Where does Eric Allin Cornell currently work as a professor and physicist?
He is currently a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He also serves as a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology where his lab remains located at JILA.