Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

| image = Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (cropped).JPG

| caption = Cohen-Tannoudji in 2007

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1933|4|1}}

| birth_place = Constantine, French Algeria

| nationality = French

| field = Physics

| work_institutions = College de France
University of Paris
École normale supérieure (Paris)

| alma_mater = École normale supérieure
University of Paris

| doctoral_advisor = Alfred Kastler

| doctoral_students = Serge Haroche
Jean Dalibard
Claude Fabre

| known_for = Laser cooling
Quantum Mechanics

| prizes = Prix Paul Langevin (1963)
Prix Jean Ricard (1971)
Young Medal and Prize (1979)
Ampère Prize (1979)
Lilienfeld Prize (1992)
Matteucci Medal (1994)
Harvey Prize (1996)
Nobel Prize in Physics (1997)

| spouse = {{marriage|Jacqueline Veyrat|1958}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xD8OAQAAMAAJ&q=Jacqueline+Veyrat++Claude+Cohen-Tannoudji |title=Notable twentieth century scientists: Supplement - Kristine M. Krapp - Google Books |via=Google Books|date= January 1998|access-date=2013-03-09|isbn=9780787627669 |last1=Krapp |first1=Kristine M. }}

| children = 3

}}

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji ({{IPA|fr|klod kɔɛn tanudʒi}}; born 1 April 1933) is a French physicist. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips for research in methods of laser cooling and trapping atoms. Currently he is still an active researcher, working at the École normale supérieure (Paris).

Early life

Cohen-Tannoudji was born in Constantine, French Algeria, to Algerian Sephardic Jewish parents Abraham Cohen-Tannoudji and Sarah Sebbah.{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/124559/Claude-Cohen-Tannoudji|title=Claude Cohen-Tannoudji - French physicist|access-date=4 October 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://www.lejdd.fr/Societe/Images/Les-Nobel-francais-de-physique/Claude-Cohen-Tannoudji-il-y-a-10-ans-12894 |title=Photo - leJDD.fr |access-date=2015-02-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213182648/http://www.lejdd.fr/Societe/Images/Les-Nobel-francais-de-physique/Claude-Cohen-Tannoudji-il-y-a-10-ans-12894 |archive-date=2015-02-13 }}{{cite book |title=A Century of Nobel Prize Recipients: Chemistry, Physics, and Medicine |author=Francis Leroy |page=218 |date= 13 Mar 2003 }}{{cite book |title=Nobel Prize Winners in Physics |author=Arun Agarwal |page=298 |date= 15 Nov 2005 }} When describing his origins Cohen-Tannoudji said: "My family, originally from Tangier, settled in Tunisia and then in Algeria in the 16th century after having fled Spain during the Inquisition. In fact, our name, Cohen-Tannoudji, means simply the Cohen family from Tangiers. The Algerian Jews obtained the French citizenship in 1870 after Algeria became a French colony in 1830."{{cite web|last=Claude Cohen-Tannoudji|title=Claude Cohen-Tannoudji - Autobiographical|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1997/cohen-tannoudji-bio.html|publisher=NobelPrize.org|access-date=13 February 2015}}

After finishing secondary school in Algiers in 1953, Cohen-Tannoudji left for Paris to attend the École Normale Supérieure. His professors included Henri Cartan, Laurent Schwartz, and Alfred Kastler.

In 1958 he married Jacqueline Veyrat, a high school teacher, with whom he has three children. His studies were interrupted when he was conscripted into the army, in which he served for 28 months (longer than usual because of the Algerian War). In 1960 he resumed working toward his doctorate, which he obtained from the École Normale Supérieure under the supervision of Alfred Kastler and Jean Brossel at the end of 1962.{{Cite web|url=http://www.phys.ens.fr/~cct/anglais/cct_en.htm|title=Claude Cohen-Tannoudji|website=www.phys.ens.fr|access-date=2017-12-21}}

Career

File:Paris de la Recherche - Claude Cohen-Tannoudji 7.jpg

After his dissertation, he started teaching quantum mechanics at the University of Paris. From 1964-67, he was an associate professor at the university and from 1967-1973 he was a full professor. His lecture notes were the basis of the popular textbook, Quantum Mechanics ({{langx|fr|Mécanique quantique}}), which he wrote with his colleagues {{Ill|Bernard Diu|fr}} and Franck Laloë. He also continued his research work on atom-photon interactions, and his research team developed the model of the dressed atom.

In 1973, he became a professor at the Collège de France. In the early 1980s, he started to lecture on radiative forces on atoms in laser light fields. He also formed a laboratory there with Alain Aspect, Christophe Salomon, and Jean Dalibard to study laser cooling and trapping. He even took a statistical approach to laser cooling with the use of stable distributions.Bardou, F., Bouchaud, J. P., Aspect, A., & Cohen-Tannoudji, C. (2001). Non-ergodic cooling: subrecoil laser cooling and Lévy statistics.

In 1976, he took sabbatical leave from the Collège de France, and lectured at Harvard University and MIT.{{cite web |title=Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (Collège de France), "Atom-Photon Interactions" - MIT Physics Department Special Seminar 4/29/1992 |url=https://infinitehistory.mit.edu/video/claude-cohen-tannoudji-coll%C3%A8ge-de-france-atom-photon-interactions%E2%80%9D-mit-physics-department |publisher=MIT |access-date=9 September 2020}}{{cite web |title=Curriculum Vitae (Claude Cohen-Tannoudji) |url=http://www.phys.ens.fr/~cct/anglais/cv_e.htm |publisher=École normale supérieure |access-date=9 September 2020}} At Harvard, he was a Loeb Lecturer for two weeks,{{cite web |title=Loeb and Lee Lectures Archive: 1953 - 1990 |url=https://www.physics.harvard.edu/loeblee3 |publisher=Harvard University |access-date=9 September 2020}} and at MIT, he was a visiting professor.{{cite web |title=Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin (1975-1976) |url=https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/presidents-reports/1976.pdf |publisher=MIT |access-date=9 September 2020 |archive-date=12 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112064253/https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/presidents-reports/1976.pdf |url-status=dead }}

His work eventually led to the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997 "for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light", shared with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips.{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1997/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1997|date=1997|website=nobelprize.org|publisher=The Nobel Foundation|access-date=14 December 2014}} Cohen-Tannoudji was the first physics Nobel prize winner born in an Arab country.{{cite web |title=Claude Cohen-Tannoudji |url=https://www.osa.org/en-us/history/biographies/bios/claude-cohen-tannoudji/ |website=OSA Living History |publisher=The Optical Society |access-date=3 February 2020}}

In 2015, Cohen-Tannoudji signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then-President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the successful COP21 climate summit in Paris.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mainaudeclaration.org/|title=Mainau Declaration|website=www.mainaudeclaration.org|access-date=2018-01-11}}

Awards

File:Science et paix - Claude Cohen-Tannoudji.webm

1979 – Young Medal and Prize, for distinguished research in the field of optics.{{cite web |title=Thomas Young Medal and Prize recipients |url=https://www.iop.org/about/awards/silver-subject-medals/thomas-young-medal-and-prize-recipients |publisher=Institute of Physics |access-date=13 January 2022}}
1991 – Research Award of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
1993 – Charles Hard Townes Award{{cite web |title=Charles Hard Townes Medal |url=https://www.optica.org/en-us/get_involved/awards_and_honors/awards/award_descriptions/charlestownes/ |publisher=Optica |access-date=13 January 2022}}
1994 – honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Uppsala University, Sweden{{cite web|url=http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/traditions/prizes/honorary-doctorates/|title=Honorary doctorates - Uppsala University, Sweden|website=www.uu.se|access-date=4 October 2018}}
1996 – Quantum Electronics Prize of the European Physical Society
1996 – CNRS Gold medal
1997 – Nobel Prize, for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.
2002 – Honorary Member of the Optical Society{{Cite web |title=Honorary Members {{!}} Optica |url=https://www.optica.org/get_involved/awards_and_honors/honorary_members/ |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=www.optica.org}}
2010 – Legion of Honour

Selected works

The main works of Cohen-Tannoudji are given in his homepage.{{cite web |url=http://www.phys.ens.fr/~cct/ |title=Claude Cohen-Tannoudji |publisher=École normale supérieure |language=fr | access-date=14 December 2014 }}

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu, and Frank Laloë. 1973. Mécanique quantique. 2 vols. Collection Enseignement des Sciences. Paris. {{ISBN|2-7056-5733-9}} (Quantum Mechanics. Vol. I & II, 1991. Wiley, New-York, {{ISBN|0-471-16433-X}} & {{ISBN|0-471-16435-6}}).
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Gilbert Grynberg and Jacques Dupont-Roc. Introduction à l'électrodynamique quantique. (Photons and Atoms: Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics. 1997. Wiley. {{ISBN|0-471-18433-0}})
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Gilbert Grynberg and Jacques Dupont-Roc, Processus d'interaction photons-atomes. (Atoms-Photon Interactions: Basic Processes and Applications. 1992. Wiley, New-York. {{ISBN|0-471-62556-6}})
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. 2004. Atoms in Electromagnetic fields. 2nd Edition. World Scientific. Collection of his most important papers.

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20120427082723/http://www.lkb.ens.fr/recherche/atfroids/welcome.html His research group]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20061010170219/http://www.phys.ens.fr/cours/college-de-france/ His lecture notes (in French)]
{{Nobelprize}} including his Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1997 Manipulating Atoms with Photons

Category:1933 births

Category:Living people

Category:Nobel laureates in Physics

Category:French Nobel laureates

Category:People from Constantine, Algeria

Category:20th-century French Sephardi Jews

Category:21st-century French Sephardi Jews

Category:Jewish French scientists

Category:Academic staff of the Collège de France

Category:French physicists

Category:French optical physicists

Category:Laser researchers