Background
Cohen-Tannoudji, Claude Nessim was born on April 1, 1933 in Constantine, Algerie, France. Son of Abraham and Sarah (Sebba) Cohen-Tannoudji.
Cohen-Tannoudji, Claude Nessim was born on April 1, 1933 in Constantine, Algerie, France. Son of Abraham and Sarah (Sebba) Cohen-Tannoudji.
Degree in Physics, École Normale Supérieure (Ecole Normale Superieure), Paris, 1957. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, École Normale Supérieure (Ecole Normale Superieure), Paris, 1962. Doctor (honorary), University Uppsala, 1994.
Doctor (honorary), Hebrew University Jerusalem, 1998. Doctor (honorary), University Bar Ilan, Israel, 1999. Doctor (honorary), University Libre, 1999.
Doctor (honorary), University Sussex, 1999. Doctor (honorary), Free University Brussels, 1999. Doctor (honorary), Federal University Pernambuco, Brazil, 1999.
Doctor (honorary), University Leige, Belgium, 2000. Doctor (honorary), Tel Aviv University, 2003. Doctor (honorary), City University Hong Kong, 2007.
Doctor (honorary), Ben Gurion University, Israel, 2007.
He is still an active researcher, working at the École Normale Supérieure in When describing his origins Cohen-Tannoudji said: "My family, originally from Tangier, settled in Tunisia and then in Algeria in the 16th century after having fled Spain during the Inquisition. In fact, our name, Cohen-Tannoudji, means simply the Cohen family from Tangiers. The Algerian Jews obtained the French citizenship in 1870 after Algeria became a French colony in 1830." After finishing secondary school in Algiers in 1953, Cohen-Tannoudji left for Paris to attend the École normale supérieure.
His professors included Henri Cartan, Laurent Schwartz, and Alfred Kastler.
His studies were interrupted when he was conscripted into the army, in which he served for 28 months (longer than usual because of the Algerian War). In 1960 he resumed working toward his doctorate, which he obtained at the end of 1962.
After his dissertation, he started teaching quantum mechanics at the University of His lecture notes were the basis of the popular textbook, Mécanique quantique, which he wrote with two of his colleagues. He also continued his research work on atom-photon interactions, and his research team developed the model of the dressed atom.
In 1973, he became a professor at the Collège de France.
In the early 1980s, he started to lecture on radiative forces on atoms in laser light fields. He also formed a laboratory there with Alain Aspect, Christophe Salomon, and Jean Dalibard to study laser cooling and trapping. He even took a statistical approach to laser cooling with the use of stable distributions.
His work there eventually led to the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997 "for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light", shared with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips.
Fellow: American Physical Society (Lilienfeld prize 1992), Indian Academy of Sciences (honorary). Member: National Academy of Sciences (foreign associate), Russian Academy of Sciences (foreign), Brazilian Academy of Sciences (foreign), Pontificia Academy, Accademia dei Lincei (foreign associate), Royal Academy of Sciences, Literature & Fine Arts Belgium (foreign associate), Indonesian Physical Society (honorary), Union Physicists (honorary), Optical Society America (honorary Charles Townes award 1993), Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, American Academy Arts. & Sciences (foreign associate), Academy of Sciences Paris.
Married Jacqueline Veyrat, November 24, 1958. Children: Alain(deceased), Joelle, Michel.