Daniel Kleppner

Daniel Kleppner Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics, Emeritus Daniel Kleppner is the Lester Wolfe professor of physics, emeritus and the co-director of the MIT–Harvard Center for Ultra-Cold Atoms. Throughout his career, he made fundamental contributions to atomic physics and quantum optics, mainly using hydrogen and hydrogen-like atoms. In 1960, along with Norman Ramsey, Professor Kleppner developed the hydrogen maser and in the 1970s, he was a pioneer in the physics of Rydberg atoms. He and Thomas Greytak, his colleague at the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), were among the first to look for quantum degeneracy effects in ultra-cold gases. After a 20-year quest, they achieved Bose–Einstein condensation in hydrogen in 1998. From 1987 to 2000, Professor Kleppner was associate director of the RLE; in 2001, he served as interim director. Professor Kleppner is the winner of the 2005 Wolf Prize in Physics, the 2007 Frederic Ives Medal, and the 2006 National Medal of Science. He holds a BS from Williams College (1953), a BA from Cambridge University (1955), and a PhD from Harvard University (1959).