Background
Phillips was born to William Cornelius Phillips of Juniata, Pennsylvania and Mary Catherine Savino of Ripacandida, Italy. He is of Italian descent on his mother"s side and of Welsh descent on his father"s side.
physicist scientist university professor
Phillips was born to William Cornelius Phillips of Juniata, Pennsylvania and Mary Catherine Savino of Ripacandida, Italy. He is of Italian descent on his mother"s side and of Welsh descent on his father"s side.
His parents moved to Camp Hill (near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) in 1959, where he attended high school and graduated valedictorian of his class. He graduated from Juniata College in 1970 summa cum laude.
After that he received his physics doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1978 he joined The National Institute of Standards and Technology. Phillips" doctoral thesis concerned the magnetic moment of the proton in H2O. He later did some work with Bose–Einstein condensates. Phillips is also a professor of physics at University of Maryland, College Park.
He was one of the 35 Nobel laureates who signed a letter urging President Obama to provide a stable $15 billion per year support for clean energy research, technology and demonstration.
He is one of three well-known scientists and Methodist laity who have involved themselves in the religion and science dialogue. The other two scientists and fellow Methodists are chemist Charles Coulson and 1981 Nobel laureate Arthur Leonard Schawlow.
In October 2010 Phillips participated in the United States of America Science and Engineering Festival"s Lunch with a laureate program where middle and high school students got to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize–winning scientist over a brown-bag lunch.
National Academy of Sciences. Pontifical Academy of Sciences]
Phillips is also a member of the United States of America Science and Engineering Festival"s Advisory Board.