William D. Phillips

Interview

Interview, July 2008

Interview with the 1997 Nobel Laureate in Physics, William D. Phillips, at the 58th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany, 2 July 2008. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org.

William Phillips discusses how his home life helped develop his early interest in science, the cultural differences he has observed in the way physicists approach problems (5:03), his incredibly precise thesis and how it helped establish the value of the fine structure constant (8:05), his move from MIT to the National Bureau of Standards (14:09), the work for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize (20:32), the application of laser cooling to atomic clocks (27:55), the inquisitiveness he looks for in a student (33:14), and how his faith is connected to his work (40:27).

To cite this section
MLA style: William D. Phillips – Interview. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Thu. 28 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1997/phillips/interview/>

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