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Daniel Kleppner, born 1932, is the Lester Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-founder and co-director of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms. His areas of science include atomic, molecular, and optical physics, and his research interests include experimental atomic physics, laser spectroscopy, and high precision measurements. ^[3]

Together with Robert J. Kolenkow, he authored a popular textbook An Introduction to Mechanics for advanced students. ^[4]

Biography

Parents

Kleppner's father was Otto Kleppner, founder of an advertising agency. ^[5]

Education and career

Kleppner graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in 1953 in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He also attended Cambridge University in England with a B.A. in 1955, and Harvard University, he attended the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, with a Ph.D. in 1959. ^[6]

In the 1950s, Kleppner became a physics doctoral student at Harvard University, where he worked under Norman Ramsey. Here, Kleppner took the concepts behind an ammonia maser and applied them to a hydrogen maser, which became his Ph.D. thesis. Kleppner did important research into Rydberg atoms. ^[7]

Later he became interested in creating a hydrogen Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC). In 1995, a group of researchers, including Kleppner's former students, made a BEC using rubidium atoms. It was not until 1998 that Kleppner and Tom Greytak finally created a hydrogen BEC. ^[8]

Honors and awards

Kleppner has been the recipient of many awards including

• 1991 Lilienfeld Prize,
• 1997 Oersted Medal,
• 2005 Wolf Prize in Physics, ^[9]
• 2006 National Medal of Science
• 2007 Frederic Ives Medal,
• 2014 Benjamin Franklin Medal, ^[10] and
• 2017 American Physical Society Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research. ^[11]

Within MIT he won the institute's prestigious James R. Killian, Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, conferring him the title of Killian Award Lecturer ^[12] for 1995-1996. ^[13]

He was elected the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986, ^[14] the French Academy of Sciences in 2004, ^[15] and the American Philosophical Society in 2007. ^[16]

Books

Kleppner and Robert J. Kolenkow wrote An Introduction to Mechanics in 1973. 40 years later, Kleppner and Kolenkow returned to edit and publish a second edition in 2013.

• Kleppner, Daniel; Robert J. Kolenkow (1973). An Introduction to Mechanics. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN  978-0-07-035048-9.
• Kleppner, Daniel (2013). An Introduction to Mechanics (1st ed.). Cambridge. ISBN  9780511784118. ^[17]
• Kleppner, Daniel (2013). An Introduction to Mechanics (2nd ed.). Cambridge. ISBN  9780521198110. ^[18]

Kleppner and his thesis adviser (and Nobel laureate) Norman Ramsey wrote the text Quick Calculus, joined for the 3rd edition by MIT professor Peter Dourmashkin:

• Kleppner, Daniel; Ramsey, Norman (1972). Quick calculus: for self-study or classroom use (1st ed.). New York: Wiley. ISBN  9780471491125.
• Kleppner, Daniel; Ramsey, Norman (1985). Quick Calculus: a self-teaching guide (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Wiley. ISBN  0471827223.
• Kleppner, Daniel; Dourmashkin, Peter; Ramsey, Norman (8 April 2022). Quick Calculus: A Self-Teaching Guide (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass. ISBN  978-1-119-74319-4.

Selected publications

• Thomas J. Greytak; Daniel Kleppner (2001). "Bose-Einstein Condensation". McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology: 64–67.
• D. G. Fried; T. C. Killian; L. Willmann; D. Landhuis; S. C. Moss; D. Kleppner; T. J. Greytak (1998). "Bose-Einstein Condensation of Atomic Hydrogen". Physical Review Letters. 81 (18): 3811. arXiv: physics/9809017. Bibcode: 1998PhRvL..81.3811F. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3811. S2CID  3174641.
• T. C. Killian; D. G. Fried; L. Willmann; D. Landhuis; S. C. Moss; T. J. Greytak; D. Kleppner (1998). "Cold Collision Frequency Shift of the 1S-2S Transition in Hydrogen". Physical Review Letters. 81 (18): 3807. arXiv: physics/9809016. Bibcode: 1998PhRvL..81.3807K. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3807. S2CID  18665492.
• C. L. Cesar; D. G. Fried; T. C. Killian; A. D. Polcyn; J. C. Sandberg; I. A. Yu; T. J. Greytak; D. Kleppner (1996). "Two-Photon Spectroscopy of Trapped Atomic Hydrogen". Physical Review Letters. 77 (2): 255–258. Bibcode: 1996PhRvL..77..255C. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.255. hdl: 1721.1/11193. PMID  10062405.
• T. C. Killian; D. G. Fried; C. L. Cesar; A. D. Polycn; T. J. Greytak; D. Kleppner (1996). "Doppler-Free Spectroscopy of Trapped Atomic Hydrogen". Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Atomic Physics.

References

External links

• Faculty page at MIT
• Interview with Daniel Kleppner (Video)
• "Views from the Garden of Worldly Delights - Daniel Kleppner". YouTube. James R. Killian, Jr. Lecture Series. December 4, 2015.