Nobel Laureates Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell will appear before both houses of the Colorado Legislature and meet with Gov. Bill Owens on Wednesday, March 6.
Wieman and Cornell will be honored by a joint resolution in the Colorado House and Senate and Gov. Owens will proclaim March 6 as "Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell Day" in the state of Colorado.
Wieman is a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Eric Cornell is a senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology laboratory in Boulder and an adjoint professor of physics at CU-Boulder. They are both fellows of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NIST, located on the CU-Boulder campus.
Wieman and Cornell received the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics for the creation of the world's first Bose-Einstein condensate, a new form of matter. The prize also was awarded to Wolfgang Ketterle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On March 6, Wieman and Cornell will visit the Legislature for the following activities:
o 8:30 a.m., reception in Senate President Stan Matsunaka's office with CU President Elizabeth Hoffman, CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard Byyny and members of the CU Board of Regents.
o 9 a.m., appear before the Colorado House of Representatives, with Rep. Alice Madden of Boulder introducing a House Joint Resolution in their honor.
o 9:30 a.m., appear before the Colorado Senate, with Sen. Ron Tupa of Boulder introducing a Senate Joint Resolution in their honor.
o 10:30 a.m., reception in the office of Gov. Bill Owens, who will issue a proclamation proclaiming March 6, 2002 as "Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell Day" in the state of Colorado.
o 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m., Wieman and Cornell will speak to legislators and staff members during a "Smart Lunch" at the Colorado History Museum.听
Wieman and Cornell led a team of physicists that created the world's first Bose-Einstein condensate in a JILA laboratory at 10:54 a.m. on June 5, 1995. The apparatus that created it is now at the Smithsonian Institution.
The Bose-Einstein condensate allows scientists to study the extremely small world of quantum physics as if they are looking through a giant magnifying glass. Its creation established a new branch of atomic physics that has provided a treasure-trove of scientific discoveries.
Predicted in 1924 by Albert Einstein, who built on the work of Satyendra Nath Bose, the condensate occurs when the wavelengths of individual atoms begin to overlap and behave in identical fashion, forming a "superatom." The atoms within the condensate obey the laws of quantum physics and are as close to absolute zero -- minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 273.15 Celsius -- as the laws of physics allow.
Wieman and Cornell used laser and magnetic traps to cool and contain atoms of rubidium. They compare the condensate to an ice crystal forming in cold water and say it has the same relation to ordinary matter as laser light has to light from a light bulb. The condensate could lead to better computer chips and more precise measuring instruments.
Both Wieman and Cornell are members of the National Academy of Sciences and both teach CU-Boulder undergraduate and graduate students. They are CU-Boulder's second and third Nobel Prize winners. Thomas Cech, a CU distinguished professor, won the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
More information on Bose-Einstein condensate can be found at or visit the Physics 2000 Web site for a description featuring interactive images at .