Daniel Kleppner | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1932-12-16)December 16, 1932 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | June 16, 2025(2025-06-16) (aged 92) Palo Alto, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Williams College (BA) University of Cambridge Harvard University (PhD) |
| Known for | Hydrogen maser |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | Lilienfeld Prize (1991) MIT Killian Award (1995-96) Oersted Medal (1997) Wolf Prize in Physics (2005) National Medal of Science (2006) Frederic Ives Medal (2007) Franklin Institute Award (2014) APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research (2017) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | AMO physics |
| Institutions | MIT |
| Thesis | The Broken Beam Resonance Experiment (1959) |
| Doctoral advisor | Norman Ramsey |
| Doctoral students | David E. Pritchard[citation needed] William Daniel Phillips[citation needed] Julia Steinberger[1] |
| Website | physics |
Daniel Kleppner (December 16, 1932 – June 16, 2025) was an American physicist who was theLester Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Physics atMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-founder and co-director of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms. His areas of science includedatomic, molecular, and optical physics, and his research interests included experimentalatomic physics, laserspectroscopy, and high precision measurements.[2]
Working withNorman Ramsey Jr., he helped create the firsthydrogen maser in 1960.[3]
Together withRobert J. Kolenkow, he authored a popular textbookAn Introduction to Mechanics for advanced students.[4]
Kleppner was born in New York City on December 16, 1932, and grew up in nearbyNew Rochelle, New York.[5] His father was Otto Kleppner, founder of an advertising agency.[6]
Kleppner graduated fromWilliams College with a B.A. in 1953 inWilliamstown, Massachusetts. He also attendedCambridge University inEngland with a B.A. in 1955, andHarvard University, he attended theHarvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, with a Ph.D. in 1959.[7]
In the 1950s, Kleppner became a physics doctoral student at Harvard University, where he worked underNorman Ramsey.Here, Kleppner took the concepts behind anammonia maser and applied them to ahydrogen maser, which became hisPh.D.thesis. This enabled the development of more preciseatomic clocks. Kleppner did important research intoRydberg atoms,[8] which enabled development of theneutral atom quantum computer.[9]
Later, he became interested in creating a hydrogenBose–Einstein condensate (BEC). In 1995, a group of researchers, including Kleppner's former students, made a BEC usingrubidium atoms. It was not until 1998 that Kleppner andTom Greytak finally created a hydrogen BEC.[10] The advancements in cooling technology needed to achieve this contributed to even more precise atomic clocks.[9] Kleppner went on to become one of the founders of a MIT-Harvard joint research lab, the Center for Ultracold Atoms.[9]
Kleppner married Beatrice Spencer in 1958, and they had three children.[5] They were longtime residents ofBelmont, Massachusetts.[11] After falling ill while visiting family in California, Kleppner died at a hospital inPalo Alto on June 16, 2025, at the age of 92.[5][12][13]
Kleppner was the recipient of many awards including
Within MIT he won the institute's prestigious James R. Killian, Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, conferring him the title of Killian Award Lecturer[18] for 1995-1996.[19]
He was elected theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986,[20] a Fellow of OSA in 1992,[21] theFrench Academy of Sciences in 2004,[22] and theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2007.[23]
Kleppner andRobert J. Kolenkow wroteAn Introduction to Mechanics in 1973. 40 years later, Kleppner and Kolenkow returned to edit and publish a second edition in 2013.
Kleppner and his thesis adviser (and Nobel laureate) Norman Ramsey wrote the textQuick Calculus, joined for the 3rd edition by MIT professor Peter Dourmashkin:
