Eric Allin Cornell

Background

Eric Allin Cornell was born on December 19, 1961, in Palo Alto, California, while his parents were completing graduate studies at Stanford University. Two years later, the family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his father taught civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cornell also spent periods in Berkeley, California, and Lisbon, Portugal, during his father's sabbatical years.

He attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School before moving with his mother to California during the year before his high-school graduation. He completed secondary school at Lowell High School in San Francisco, a magnet school for academically talented students. His early interests included literature, politics, foreign languages, reading, chess, and computer programming, but his later work in university laboratories led him back toward physics.

Education

Cornell attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and completed his secondary education at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Lowell, founded in 1856, is a selective public high school known for its academically competitive curriculum and emphasis on college preparation.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Stanford University in 1985, graduating with honors and distinction. Stanford, founded in 1885 in California's Santa Clara Valley, combined strong research traditions in physics and engineering with proximity to the region's emerging technology industries. Cornell then completed a Ph.D. in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990, conducting doctoral research in David Pritchard's group on precision mass spectroscopy of trapped ions. MIT's research environment emphasized experimental science, engineering, and close interaction among laboratories working at the frontiers of atomic and molecular physics.

Career

Cornell worked as a research assistant at Stanford University from 1982 to 1985 and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1985 to 1990. At MIT he investigated the motion and mass of trapped ions in experiments designed to make highly precise spectroscopic measurements. He also served as a teaching fellow at Harvard Extension School in 1989 and undertook a summer postdoctoral appointment at the Rowland Institute in Cambridge in 1990.

In 1990 Cornell joined the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics in Boulder as a postdoctoral researcher with Carl Wieman. Jila is a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, established for research in physics, astrophysics, chemistry, and precision measurement. Cornell and Wieman developed an experimental program combining laser cooling, magnetic trapping, and evaporative cooling of rubidium atoms.

In June 1995, their group created the first Bose–Einstein condensate in a dilute atomic vapor. The experiment produced a new state of matter in which ultracold atoms occupied a common quantum state, confirming a prediction associated with the work of Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein. Cornell subsequently investigated condensate properties including collective excitations, vortices, spin waves, collapsing condensates, atom optics, and strongly interacting quantum gases.

Cornell became a senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1992 and a Fellow of Jila in 1994. He joined the University of Colorado Boulder as an assistant professor adjoint in 1992 and became a professor adjoint in 1995. His later research has included precision molecular spectroscopy and efforts to improve measurements of the electron's electric dipole moment, using such experiments to search for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Achievements

• Cornell and Carl Wieman created the first Bose–Einstein condensate in a dilute atomic vapor in 1995, making experimentally accessible a new macroscopic quantum state of matter.

• His research established experimental methods for studying ultracold atomic gases, including condensate excitations, vortices, spin waves, atom optics, and strongly interacting Bose gases.

• Cornell contributed to precision molecular spectroscopy and experimental searches for an electric dipole moment of the electron, investigations relevant to tests of physics beyond the Standard Model.

Works

• journal article

  • Precision Measurement of the Electron's Electric Dipole Moment Using Trapped Molecular Ions

    (Cornell was a co-author of this precision-measurement stu...)

    2017
  • Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Dilute Atomic Vapor

    (Cornell was a co-author of the landmark Science paper rep...)

    1995
  • Very Cold Indeed: The Nanokelvin Physics of Bose-Einstein Condensation

    (Cornell's review explains the experimental physics of ult...)

    1996

• nobel lecture

  • Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Dilute Gas: The First 70 Years and Some Recent Experiments

    (Cornell and Carl Wieman's Nobel lecture surveys the histo...)

    2002

Views

Cornell's scientific writings present physics as an effort to develop clear intuition about phenomena that are difficult to encounter directly. His discussions of Bose–Einstein condensation connect experimental technique with broader questions about how quantum behavior becomes visible at macroscopic scales.

He has also emphasized the importance of clear writing in science, arguing that disciplined exposition supports disciplined reasoning. His research and public lectures have treated experimental physics as an exploratory activity in which unexpected behavior remains a source of new questions.

Membership

Cornell has held fellowships and memberships in major American scientific organizations, including the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. These organizations support research communication, professional standards, scientific recognition, and advice on matters concerning science and public welfare.

His election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2000 recognized distinguished continuing contributions to original research. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1997, a Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 2000, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005.

• Elected Fellow.

  American Physical Society , United States

  1997 - present

• Elected member.

  National Academy of Sciences , United States

  2000 - present

• Elected Fellow.

  Optical Society of America , United States

  2000 - present

• Elected Fellow.

  American Academy of Arts and Sciences , United States

  2005 - present

Personality

Cornell has described himself as a voracious and wide-ranging reader whose interests in literature, science, programming, and physics developed at different stages of his life. In discussing scientific writing, he has emphasized that writing clearly helps researchers think clearly.

Quotes from others about the person

• Carl Williams of the National Institute of Standards and Technology described Cornell as extraordinarily deep and as a quiet but deep thinker from whom others could learn.

Interests

• Reading, literature, languages, travel, and computer programming

• Sport & Clubs

  Chess

Connections

Cornell married Celeste Landry in January 1995. They have two daughters, Eliza and Sophia; Sophia was born in 1998. Cornell's major professional collaboration with Carl Wieman began at Jila and produced the first Bose–Einstein condensate in a dilute atomic gas. He also shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics with Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle for work on Bose–Einstein condensation.

Wife:

Celeste Landry

Cornell married Celeste Landry in January 1995.

Daughter:

Eliza Cornell

Eliza was born in 1996.

Daughter:

Sophia Cornell

Sophia was born in 1998.

Collegue :

Carl E. Wieman

Cornell collaborated with Wieman at JILA on the creation and study of Bose–Einstein condensates.

Collegue :

Wolfgang Ketterle

Cornell shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ketterle and Carl Wieman for work on Bose–Einstein condensation.

References

• Eric A. Cornell – Biographical Autobiographical account of Cornell's childhood, education, career, family, and development of the research program that produced Bose–Einstein condensation.
  2001
• The Person behind the Nobel Prize: Eric Cornell National Institute of Standards and Technology biography documenting Cornell's early life, education, work with Carl Wieman, and role in creating the first Bose–Einstein condensate.
  2015
• Eric Cornell University of Colorado Boulder and JILA profile describing Cornell's research areas, institutional affiliations, and professional contact location.
• Eric A. Cornell Curriculum Vitae Curriculum vitae documenting Cornell's degrees, appointments, honors, awards, and extensive publication record.
  2024