Alfred Kastler

{{Infobox scientist

| image = Kastler.jpg

| caption = Kastler in 1966

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1902|5|3}}

| birth_place = Guebwiller, Alsace–Lorraine, German Empire

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1984|1|7|1902|5|3}}

| death_place = Bandol, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

| alma_mater = École Normale Supérieure

| known_for = Optical pumping
Nuclear acoustic resonance

| awards = {{ubl|Holweck Prize (1954)|CNRS Gold medal (1964)|Nobel Prize in Physics (1966)}}

| fields = Physics

| work_institutions = University of Bordeaux

| doctoral_advisor = {{ill|Pierre Daure|fr}}

| doctoral_students = Claude Cohen Tannoudji

}}

Alfred Kastler ({{IPA|fr|kastlɛʁ|lang}}; 3 May 1902 – 7 January 1984) was a German-born French physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics.{{cite journal|author=Happer, William|author-link=William Happer|title=Obituary: Alfred Kastler|journal=Physics Today|date=May 1984|volume=37|issue=5|pages=101–102|url=http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v37/i5/p101_s1?bypassSSO=1|doi=10.1063/1.2916219|bibcode=1984PhT....37e.101H}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} He is known for the development of optical pumping.

Biography

Kastler was born in Guebwiller (Alsace, at the time part of the German Empire) and later attended the Lycée Bartholdi in Colmar, Alsace, and École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1921. After his studies, in 1926 he began teaching physics at the Lycée of Mulhouse, and then taught at the University of Bordeaux, where he was a university professor until 1941. Georges Bruhat asked him to come back to the École Normale Supérieure, where he finally obtained a chair in 1952.

Collaborating with Jean Brossel, he researched quantum mechanics, the interaction between light and atoms, and spectroscopy. Kastler, working on combination of optical resonance and magnetic resonance, developed the technique of "optical pumping". Those works led to the completion of the theory of lasers and masers.

In 1962, he received the first C.E.K Mees Medal from the Optical Society of America, and he was elected an Honorary member of the Society. The following year, he was elected a Fellow.

He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1966 "for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms".

He was president of the board of the Institut d'optique théorique et appliquée and served as the first chairman of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Action Against Hunger.

Kastler also wrote poetry (in German). In 1971 he published Europe, ma patrie: Deutsche Lieder eines französischen Europäers (i.e. Europe, my fatherland: German songs of a French European).

In 1976, Kastler was elected to the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Alfred+Kastler&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}

In 1978 he became foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.{{cite web|url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001214 |title=A.H.F. Kastler (1902 - 1984) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=19 July 2015}}

In 1979, Kastler was awarded the Wilhelm Exner Medal.Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.

Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel

File:Alfred Kastler French physicist.jpg

Professor Kastler spent most of his research career at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris where he started after the war a small research group on spectroscopy with his student, Jean Brossel.

Over the forty years that followed, this group trained many young physicists, including Nobel laureates Claude Cohen Tannoudji and Serge Haroche, and had a significant impact on the development of atomic physics in France. The Laboratoire de Spectroscopie hertzienne was renamed Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel in 1994. It has part of its laboratories in Université Pierre et Marie Curie but mainly at the École Normale Supérieure.

Global policy

He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution.{{Cite web |title=Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace. 1961 |url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-07-B149-F04-022.1.8 |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=Helen Keller Archive |publisher=American Foundation for the Blind}}{{Cite web |title=Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials |url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-07-B154-F05-028.1.6 |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Helen Keller Archive |publisher=American Foundation for the Blind}} As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.{{Cite web |title=Preparing earth constitution {{!}} Global Strategies & Solutions {{!}} The Encyclopedia of World Problems |url=http://encyclopedia.uia.org/en/strategy/193465 |url-status= |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=The Encyclopedia of World Problems {{!}} Union of International Associations (UIA)}}

Death

Professor Kastler died on 7 January 1984, in Bandol, France.{{cite news |title=Dr. Alfred Kastler, 81, Nobel Prize-Winner, Dies |first=Walter |last=Sullivan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/08/obituaries/dr-alfred-kastler-81-nobel-prize-winner-dies.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=8 January 1984 |access-date=2010-11-06 }}

Notes

References

{{cite book | last=Nobelstiftelsen | title=Nobel Lectures, Physics 1963–1970 | url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1966/kastler-bio.html | location=Amsterdam | publisher=Elsevier Publishing Company | year=1972 | isbn=0-444-40993-9 }}
{{cite journal

|bibcode = 1967Sci...158..214K }}

{{cite journal

|bibcode = 1950Natur.166..113K |s2cid=4192600 |doi-access=free }}

External links

{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1966 Optical Methods for Studying Hertzian Resonances
[http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/alfred_kastler.html Alfred Kastler biography] at Timeline of Nobel Winners
{{MathGenealogy}}

Category:1902 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:People from Guebwiller

Category:French people of German descent

Category:École Normale Supérieure alumni

Category:Academic staff of the École Normale Supérieure

Category:French physicists

Category:German-language poets

Category:Nobel laureates in Physics

Category:French Nobel laureates

Category:Spectroscopists

Category:20th-century poets