Nobel Prize

Former CU Postdoc Wins 2020 Nobel Prize

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 06:00:00 +0000

Former CU Postdoc Wins 2020 Nobel Prize Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/18/2021 - 00:00

Emily Heninger

Jennifer Doudna smashes the glass ceiling with her historic recognition in chemistry.

After biochemist Jennifer Doudna learned she had won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry at 2:53 a.m. on Oct. 7, the first thing she did was make coffee — then wake up her teenage son.

“I said, ‘Guess what? I just won the Nobel Prize,’” she laughed. “You don’t hear that every morning.”

Doudna, a former CU Boulder postdoc, won the prize for co-development of the genome editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 with French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier — the first time a science Nobel had been won by two women together.

“It’s really important for people that have been traditionally underrepresented in certain fields to feel appreciated, to feel like their work can be recognized,” she said. “This prize in particular makes that statement.”

Now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Doudna’s career began at CU in 1991 in the lab of Thomas Cech, a distinguished professor of chemistry, who had won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry two years earlier.

“He built an amazing group of people and an incredible lab filled with smart, hardworking, interesting people, many of whom are still some of my best friends in science,” she said.

Decades later, the Nobel Foundation honored Doudna and Charpentier for their discovery that a gene-cutting molecule known as Cas9, which is used naturally by bacteria to kill viruses, can be re-engineered as a precise gene-editing tool.

The technology is already being used in labs around the world, with potential to treat genetic diseases and cancer, engineer crops and address climate change.

“A few years ago, it sounded like science fiction,” said Doudna. “But now it’s actually happening.”

Jennifer Doudna smashes the glass ceiling with her historic recognition in chemistry. Doudna, a former CU Boulder postdoc, won the prize for co-development of the genome editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 with French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier — the first time a science Nobel had been won by two women together.

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Infographic: CU and the Nobel Prize

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Infographic: CU and the Nobel Prize Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/22/2019 - 01:00

CU Boulder boasts five Nobel laureates, four in physics and one in chemistry. Perhaps the world's premier honor for intellectuals, and certainly the best known, it celebrates individuals who have "conferred the greatest benefit to human kind" through their work. Since the award's inception in 1901, 904 people have won the Nobel — not to mention a measure of fame. Here's the scoop on CU's own scientist-celebrities. To see the full infographic, view the PDF on the Spring 2019 issue page.

Illustrations by Ryan Olbrysh

Thomas Check, Chemistry, 1989

Time at CU: 1978 to present

Awarded for: "�鶹��Ƶy of catalytic properties of RNA."

Fun fact: "Many chapters in our textbooks have to be revised," wrote The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences of Check's work.

Quote: "We were too steeped in the dogma of all the biology textbooks... It took more than a year to convince ourselves that what was happening was true," Cech told the Washington Post of his discovery. Where he keeps his medal: "I used to keep The Medal under my mattress, but it made it lumpy and hard to sleep on, so I had to move it!"

Carl Wieman & Eric Cornell, Physics, 2001

Awarded for: "The achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates."

Impact: By cooling rubidium atoms to an extremely cold temperature - minus 459.67 Fahrenheit - Wieman and Cornell created a condensate, a new type of matter distinct from solid, liquid and gas. The discovery enabled scientists to better understand quantum behavior.

Carl Wieman

Time at CU: 1984 to 2013

Fun Fact: While an undergraduate at MIT, Wieman moved into his lab. "After spending many very late nights by myself taking data in the lab and showering every day at the athletic center after exercising, I started to wonder why I was paying all that money, of which I had little, to rent a dormitory room I almost never saw."

Quote: "I know you can double how much a student learns depending on what method the instructor is using." Wieman told NPR in 2016. Since receiving the Nobel, he has worked to improve teaching methods in STEM fields.

Where he keeps hid medal: Donated to CU

Eric Cornell

Time at CU: 1990 to present

Fun Fact: Cornell passed much of his childhood reading. "In elementary school I often kept my desktop slightly open and affected an alert-looking pose that still allowed me to peek into the desk where I kept my latest book, as interesting as it was irrelevant to the academic subject at hand."

Quote: "I thought I had a chance [of winning a Nobel], but I thought it would be 25 years from now," he told the Washington Post in 2001.

Where he keeps his medal: Top secret

John "Jan" Hall, Physics, 2005

Time at CU: 1964 to present

Awarded for: "Contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique."

Impact: Enables scientists to accurately measure frequencies of light, which can help calibrate atomic clocks.

Fun fact: He installed the electrical wiring and plumbing at his gamily's mountain cabin in Marble, Colo., and is "very proud" to have received no violation notices from state inspectors.

Quote: He once likened the potential of his work to that of a baby: "Now, you might ask, 'What's the practical use of a baby?' Man, just hang on 20 years, and something good is going to happen. That's the case with the tools we have made."

Where he keeps his medal: Donated to CU

David Wineland, Physics, 2012

Time at CU: 1975 to 2017

Awarded for: "Ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems."

Impact: By creating a method to trap electrically-charged atoms, he contributed to the development of extremely accurate atomic clocks, which base their measurements of time on the vibrations of atoms and are used in GPS technology. The work is also useful in quantum computer development.

Fun Fact: A fellow physicist in 2012 told the Washington Post that Wineland is "universally acknowledged to be one of the true nice guys in physics, which is not something that can always be said about Nobel laureates."

Quote: "One of the interesting aspects of quantum computing is the possibility of massive memory storage."
Where he keeps his medal: In a lock box

CU Boulder boasts five Nobel laureates, four in physics and one in chemistry. Here's more on CU's scientist-celebrities.

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Spring 2019

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Not All That Glitters Is (Merely) Gold

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 18:00:00 +0000

Not All That Glitters Is (Merely) Gold Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/19/2018 - 12:00

Christie Sounart

The Nobel Prize confers on winners great prestige and a measure of celebrity. It also comes with a 175-gram gold medal. John “Jan” Hall’s will soon be on display at CU Boulder.

One of four scientists to share the 2005 prize in physics, Hall and his wife, Lindy, have donated his gold presentation medal and Nobel diploma to the campus Heritage Center, an archive and museum about CU Boulder.

Five CU scholars have won the Nobel Prize: Four in physics, one in chemistry. Hall, now 84, is the first to turn his over to the university. The museum previously received CU chemist Tom Cech’s original Nobel diploma and a replica of his medal.

With the Halls’ donation in hand, the Heritage Center, located in Old Main, is planning a Nobel Prize gallery for showcasing the medal and highlighting CU Boulder’s other laureates: Cech, Carl Wieman, Eric Cornell and David Wineland. The exhibition also will recognize CU affiliates involved with Nobel Peace Prize efforts. Work is expected to begin later this year, Heritage Center director Allyson Smith said.

Hall, a laser expert and member of CU Boulder’s physics community since the early 1960s, won the prize for his contributions to laser-based precision spectroscopy; basically, using light to make extremely precise measurements of various natural phenomena.

“There can never be enough time or opportunity to speak individually with young people starting their advanced educations so it is hoped that visual contact with such memorabilia will inspire and motivate them to succeed at high levels and realize their goals and ambitions,” said Hall.

CU Boulder’s five Nobel laureates are among fewer than 900 individuals to have won the prize since its 1901 establishment.

The medal, made of 18-carat recycled gold, depicts prize founder Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist and engineer known for inventing dynamite, and, of course, for the prize in his name.

Photo by Peter van Evert / Alamy Stock Photo

Sometimes it's also a Nobel Prize medal

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Now – Nobel Road

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 23:55:00 +0000

Now – Nobel Road Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/01/2016 - 16:55

Four of CU Boulder’s five Nobel Prize winners stroll the campus together, nodding to a certain 1969 Beatles album cover.

They are, left to right, David Wineland (physics, 2012), Carl Wieman (physics, 2001), Eric Cornell (physics, 2001) and Thomas Cech (chemistry, 1989). Jan Hall (physics, 2005), CU’s fifth Nobelist, was unable to attend.

Watch a video of the photo shoot:

[video:https://youtu.be/QnETozfTwrA]

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

Four of CU Boulder’s five Nobel Prize winners stroll the campus together.

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CU Wins Fourth Nobel Prize

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

CU Wins Fourth Nobel Prize Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 12/01/2012 - 00:00

Marc Killinger

Telling time as we know it could change dramatically, thanks to CU-Boulder lecturer David Wineland who won the Nobel Prize in physics in October.

He is CU-Boulder’s fifth Nobel Laureate and the fourth associated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and CU-Boulder.

Wineland, also a physicist with NIST in Boulder, won the award for “groundbreaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.” He traps ions — electrically charged atoms — and measures them with light. His research has led to the construction of extremely precise clocks and could lead to the creation of computers that would be super-efficient for certain problems.

“It would be difficult to find a more brilliant and humble scientist,” said John Jost (EngrPhys’01, PhD’10), who worked in Wineland’s group for about 10 years as a doctoral student and postdoctoral researcher. “He was always available when we had questions and problems in the lab and usually had some great idea about what to try next.”

Wineland is internationally recognized for developing a technique of using lasers to cool ions to near absolute zero, which allows them to be observed. His research helped make possible the creation of the world’s first Bose-Einstein Condensate, for which CU-Boulder distinguished physics professor Carl Wieman of JILA and professor adjoint Eric Cornell of NIST and JILA won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001.

Wineland, who works with four CU-Boulder graduate students, says the computing applications of his work may still be far away.

“Don’t go out buying quantum computer stock just yet,” he joked to the Daily Camera.

1989

Distinguished chemistry professor Tom Cech wins the chemistry prize for discovering that RNA in living cells can function as a biocatalyst.

2001

Distinguished physics professor Carl Wieman wins the physics prize for creating a new form of matter, Bose-Einstein Condensate.

2001

Professor adjoint Eric Cornell wins the physics prize for creating a new form of matter, Bose-Einstein Condensate.

2005

John Hall of JILA and NIST receives the physics prize for contributions to laser-based precision spectroscopy.

Telling time as we know it could change dramatically, thanks to CU-Boulder lecturer David Wineland who won the Nobel Prize in physics in October.

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Building a Nobel Reputation

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Building a Nobel Reputation Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/01/2012 - 00:00

Staff

JILA, new addition on left and original tower on right, and the physics department tied with Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the nation’s top graduate program in atomic, molecular and optical physics, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings. Photo by Casey A. Cass.

The factory for Nobel Prize winners on campus grew by 56,000 square feet in spring.

The prominent JILA tower, which houses a joint institute between CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has been home to three Nobel Prize winners since 2001 ― Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman and Jan Hall. But the new space will ensure JILA’s ability to train the nation’s future leaders in the physical sciences.

Inside the new six-story wing made of sandstone and glass, scientists seek to understand some of today’s most challenging and fundamental questions about quantum physics, the design of precision optical and X-ray lasers, the interaction of light and matter and processes that have governed the evolution of the universe for nearly 14 billion years.

During the past two decades, their discoveries have spilled out of the towering building, transforming into many spinoff companies, including 11 along Colorado’s Front Range. Professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn started KM Labs to produce the fastest laser in the world. Chris Myatt (PhDPhys’97) founded MBio Diagnostics to deliver technology for rapid, accurate patient diagnoses from a single drop of blood.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer, JILA opened in 1962 as an innovative partnership between CU-Boulder and National Bureau of Standards [now the National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST] in the Armory building north of Macky Auditorium. It initially focused on laboratory astrophysics research, a combination of atomic physics and astrophysics.

It didn’t take long for it to establish itself as a world-renowned institute. In 1969 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a retroreflector package on the Moon on July 21, 1969, to help measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon. JILA fellow James Faller came up with the original idea for this experiment. The 18-inch-square array consisted of 100 fused silica “corner cubes,” similar to the reflectors on bicycles, to reflect a beam of light coming from the Earth back to its source. Scientists have used this technique to measure the Earth–Moon distance, test the theory of general relativity and verify that the Moon has a fluid core and is moving away from the Earth.

JILA Fellows Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman and collaborators made the world’s first Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), an entirely new form of matter, in 1995. Predicted many years earlier by physicists Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein, the BEC appeared when a cloud of rubidium atoms was cooled to a few hundred billionths of a degree above absolute zero, causing the atoms to fall into the same low energy state, forming a “superatom.” This accomplishment earned Wieman and Cornell the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics.

A stretch of U.S. Highway 36 that runs between Boulder and Denver has been renamed “Buffalo Highway.” The Colorado legislature approved the bill to rename that section of highway this spring after very little wrangling.

The factory for Nobel Prize winners on campus grew by 56,000 square feet in spring.

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Get your John Travoltage on

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:43:12 +0000

Get your John Travoltage on Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/01/2011 - 09:43

In the educational version of Dante’s Inferno, you’re a teacher in a classroomin Estonia, Vietnam or the United States, desperately trying — and failing miserably — to explain static electricity to bored students.

But things turn around after you log onto a science website created by CU-Boulder Nobel laureate Carl Wieman. It has dozens of computer-simulated lessons in nearly any language, including one called “John Travoltage.”

The lessons are part of CU-Boulder’s PhET Interactive Simulations Project, which received an additional $2.5 million in grants last fall from the National Science Foundation and the O’Donnell Foundation to expand middle school science outreach.

“Most young students do not have enough experience to visualize the process of physics happening,” Trish Loeblein, a physics and chemistry teacher at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colo., says. “The PhET simulations allow us to conduct experiments with students at the helm that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to stage or model in the classroom.”

Founded by Wieman in 2002, the project aims to engage students in science and improve their learning of underlying concepts. The free simulations are run more than 15 million times each year.

The simulations are available for free at http://phet.colorado.edu with 50 language translations.

Computer-simulated lessons by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman.

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Nobel Prize

Former CU Postdoc Wins 2020 Nobel Prize

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Infographic: CU and the Nobel Prize

Thomas Check, Chemistry, 1989

Carl Wieman & Eric Cornell, Physics, 2001

Carl Wieman

Eric Cornell

John "Jan" Hall, Physics, 2005

David Wineland, Physics, 2012

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