After seeing the substantial interest in my previous post on the upcoming Nobel award announcements (Oct 7-14), I decided to stay on that topic. Here are some stories about my personal meetings with physics Nobel laureates. Hope you enjoy.
i) Glauber: (For optics). I have already written about the few minutes of one-on-one I had with him when I was a postdoc. I won't repeat the story here.
ii) Koshiba: (For neutrino physics) I did mention I was one of the graduate students selected to have lunch with him when he visited the University of Rochester (of which he was an alumnus) when he came to the US to be awarded the Wolf prize.. He did no more than politely shake my hand and say hello. Still, a big moment for me.
iii) Cornell: (For atomic physics). I met him during a tour of his lab arranged for the attendees of a conference in Boulder. A more entertaining story happened when at a conference I saw him eat lunch by himself at the hotel cafe. After he left I informed his waitress (and mine) that she had been serving a Nobel laureate in physics. That got an interesting reaction.
iv) Ketterle: (For atomic physics). I was getting a tour of his labs at MIT and found myself in his office. He asked me about my thesis work and I told him about the problem I had solved. He responded with an encouraging comment: 'That was a good fish to catch.'
v) Phillips: (For atomic physics). The Nobel laureate with whom I have had the most contact. I have given several talks with him in the audience (and asking countless questions, a style for which he is famous), and attended some of his group meetings when I was a postdoc at Maryland. I also had the privilege of discussing my work with him in my office for a good half hour when he came to RIT as a commencement speaker.
vi) Hansch: (For optics). This was an interesting story. I was browsing online one day when I saw a conference in my field advertised in Germany (in Bad Honef). I decided to check the list of invited speakers and was astounded to see my own name there - but no one had informed me!
I wrote to the organizers, who replied sheepishly saying it had been a clerical error. The program was actually a wish list and they did not have enough money to pay for my airfare. I told them I would pay for myself and they kindly agreed to invite me.
When my invitation to Germany was confirmed, I wrote to Hansch asking if there would be interest in a talk from me at his institution, since our work had been inspired by his research and was closely related. The next day I got a long invitation letter from his secretary. Long story short, I showed up in Munich, and it was Hansch who introduced me at my talk. He listened carefully and asked many (amazing) questions. Surely one of the high points of my career.
Some Close Shaves
Some Nobelists with whom I came close to having contact:
i) David Lee: (For superfluidity) My advisor's advisor. His Nobel was announced a month after I joined my advisor's group in graduate school. I was later told my advisor had hopped into his car and driven from Rochester to Ithaca (~2 hours away) to join the celebration party.
ii) Art Ashkin: (For optics) We sent him our paper (he is mentioned in our abstract) directly related to his work, but he passed away shortly after. Would have been interesting to learn his views.
iii) Norman Ramsey: (For atomic physics). Ramsey sat in the first row during my talk at a conference (making me quite nervous), and then afterwards snatched the last muffin from the food table from under my outstretched hand (probably did not see me).
iv) Donna Strickland: (For optics). She was away when I was visiting her department at the University of Waterloo, but I got to see her personal car parking space, with its sign: "Nobel Laureate".
v) David Wineland: (For atomic physics). He showed interest in my postdoc's talk (related to some of his own research) at a conference, but since everything was on Zoom, there was no scope for a follow up discussion.
vi) Tony Leggett: (For low temperature physics) I was attending a small (where I ended up talking to everybody else) workshop where he was a featured speaker, but he couldn't make it in person and gave his talk remotely.
Next post: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2024!!
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