Osheroff was born inAberdeen, Washington. His father, William Osheroff, was the son ofJewish immigrants who leftRussia. His mother, Bessie Anne (Ondov), a nurse, was the daughter ofSlovak immigrants (her own father was a Lutheran minister)[2] from theFelvidék, Upper Hungary,Kingdom of Hungary.Osheroff wasconfirmed in the Lutheran Church but he was given the chance to choose and decided not to attend any longer. He has stated "In some sense it seemed that lying in church is the worst place to lie. I guess at some emotional level I accept the idea of God, but I don't know how God would manifest itself."[3]
Osheroff joined theLaboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics atCornell University as a graduate student, doing research in low-temperature physics. Together with David Lee, the head of the laboratory, and Robert C. Richardson, Osheroff used aPomeranchuk cell to investigate the behaviour of3He at temperatures within a few thousandths of a degree of absolute zero. They discovered unexpected effects in their measurements, which they eventually explained as phase transitions to a superfluid phase of3He.[4][5] Lee, Richardson and Osheroff were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996 for this discovery.
Osheroff received aPh.D. fromCornell University in 1973. He then worked atBell Labs inMurray Hill, New Jersey for 15 years, continuing to research low-temperature phenomena in3He. In 1987 he moved to the Departments of Physics and Applied Physics atStanford University, where he also served as department chair from 1993 to 1996. His research is focused on phenomena that occur at extremely low temperatures.
He currently serves on the board of advisors ofScientists and Engineers for America, an organization focused on promoting sound science in American government.
Osheroff photographing during a trip toBig Sur with his students
Osheroff is left-handed, and he often blames his slight quirks and eccentricities on it. He is also an avid photographer and introduces students at Stanford to medium-format film photography in a freshman seminar titled "Technical Aspects of Photography." In addition, he has taught the Stanford introductory physics course onelectricity andmagnetism on multiple occasions, most recently in Spring 2008, as well as undergraduate labs on low temperature physics.
^Osheroff, DD; WJ Gully; RC Richardson; DM Lee (1972-10-02). "New Magnetic Phenomena in Liquid He3 below 3mK".Physical Review Letters.29 (14). American Physical Society:920–923.Bibcode:1972PhRvL..29..920O.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.29.920.
Douglas D. Osheroff on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, December 7, 1996Superfluidity in3He: Discovery and Understandning
Osheroff Learning of his Nobel Prize - Osheroff released this recording from his answering machine, which showed his initial annoyance with a 2.30am phone call.
