curate Archdeacon of Cheltenham
Born in Denver, Colorado, Hall holds three degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology, a B.S. in 1956, an M.S. in 1958, and a Ph.D. in 1961. He completed his postdoctoral studies at the Department of Commerce's National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he remained from 1962 until his retirement in 2004.
He has lectured at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1967. Hall is currently a NIST Senior Fellow, Emeritus and remains a Fellow at JILA, formerly the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and Lecturer at the CU-Boulder Physics Department. JILA is a research institute managed jointly by CU-Boulder and NIST. Hall shared half of the Nobel prize with Theodor W. Hänsch for their pioneering work on laser-based precision spectroscopy, and the optical frequency comb technique.
The other half of the prize was awarded to Roy J. Glauber.
National Carbon Company Fellow in Physics, 1957–1961
Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 1969
Samuel W. Stratton Award, 1971
Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 1974 (group awards)
IR-100: Laser stabilizer selected as one of “100 best new products of the year,” 1975
IR-100: Laser wavelength meter (“Lambdameter”) selected as one of “100 best new products of the year,” 1977
E. U. Condon Award, 1979
Charles Hard Townes Award of the Optical Society of America, 1984, jointly with V. P. Chebotayev (Academy of Sciences, USSR)
Davisson-Germer Prize of the American Physical Society, 1988
Docteur Honoris Causa de l’Universite Paris Nord, 1989
Frederic Ives Medal of the Optical Society of America, 1991
Einstein Prize for Laser Science, 1992
Arthur L. Shawlow Prize of the American Physical Society, 1993
Allen V. Astin Measurement Science Award, 2000
Max Born Award of the Optical Society of America, 2002
Presidential Rank Award from the Office of Personnel Management, 2002
Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 2002 (group awards)
Rabi Award of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society, 2004
Légion d’Honneur Membership, 2004
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2005
Doctor of Science, honoris causa, University of Glasgow, 2007.
[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]
Heilbron is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
