2007-9-14

Sweden King was awarding Eric A. Cornell the Nobel Prize in Physics.

At local time 11:45 on October 9th (17:45 on October 9th of Beijing time), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences declared winners of Nobel Prize in Physics 2001. They are Eric A. Cornel from USA, Wolfgang Ketterle from Federal Republic of Germany and Carl E. Wieman from USA who will share cash award of 10W Swedish Kronor equally.

These three scientists' resume are as follows: Eric A. Cornell, born in California, USA in 1961, is 39 years old now. He received the doctor's degree of MIT in 1990 and is senior scientist of American National Standard Institute ANSI at present. Wolfgang Ketterle, born in Heidelberg of German in 1957, is 43 years old now. He received the doctor's degree in 1986 and is a professor of physics in MIT now. Carl E. Wieman, born in 1951, is 50 years old now. He received the doctor's degree of Stanford University in 1977 and is a professor of physics in University of Colorado, JILA Boulder, CO, USA.

These three scientists were awarded for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms and for discovery of a new kind of object- Bose-Einstein Condensate. We all knew that laser is different from common light. All light particles in laser possess the same energy and generation. Therefore, it has always been a challenge for physicist to control other light beam at the same status.

The winners of this year successfully solved this problem. They made atoms to"sing harmoniously together"and hence discovered a new state of object- Bose-Einstein Condensate. In 1924, Indian physicist Bose proposed an important theory about computation of light particles and sent the results to Einstein who developed the theory to atoms of specific type. Einstein predicted that if this kind of atomic gas was lowered to a very low temperature, then, all atoms would accumulate at a energy state as low as possible suddenly. This process is similar to that a liquid drops from air. Hence, it is called Bose-Einstein Condensate. Contribution of the three physicists above was just to successfully prove this theory.

Nobel Prize in Physics is one of five awarding fields mentioned by Alfred Bernhard Nobel, who was the inventor of explosive, in his will. But Nobel did not male a clear presentation in his will. He only said that part of the cash award should be awarded to people who make important discovery or invention in physics.

He designated the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences RSAS to present the prize in physics and particularly pointed out that there is no need to consider nationality of the candidates who can be from countries other than Scandinavia but must be the most qualified one for this prize.

The first Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Rontgen- the discoverer of X-ray 1901.