John L. Hall

For other people named John Hall, see John Hall (disambiguation).

John Lewis Hall
Born	(1934-08-21) August 21, 1934 Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Carnegie Institute of Technology
Known for	Optical frequency comb
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (2005)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Colorado, JILA, NIST

John Lewis "Jan" Hall (born August 21, 1934) is an American physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics. He shared one half of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Theodor W. Hänsch for his work in precision spectroscopy.

Biography

Born in Denver, Colorado, Hall holds three degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology, a B.S. in 1956, an M.S. in 1958, and a Ph.D. in 1961. He completed his postdoctoral studies at the Department of Commerce's National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he remained from 1962 until his retirement in 2004. He has lectured at the University of Colorado at Boulder since 1967.

Hall is currently a NIST Senior Fellow, Emeritus and remains a Fellow at JILA, formerly the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and Lecturer at the CU Boulder Physics Department. JILA is a research institute managed jointly by CU Boulder and NIST.

Hall's Nobel prize was awarded for his work on laser-based precision spectroscopy, and the optical frequency comb technique. The other half of the prize was awarded to Roy J. Glauber.

Hall has received many other honors for his pioneering work, including the Optical Society of America's Max Born Award "for pioneering the field of stable lasers, including their applications in fundamental physics and, most recently, in the stabilization of femtosecond lasers to provide dramatic advances in optical frequency metrology."

Honours and awards

President George W. Bush meets with the 2005 Nobel Prize recipients. From left to right are Dr. John Hall, 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics; Dr. Thomas C. Schelling, 2005 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; Dr. Roy J. Glauber, 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics; Dr. Richard R. Schrock and Dr. Robert H. Grubbs, 2005 Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry.

• National Carbon Company Fellow in Physics, 1957–1961
• Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 1969
• Samuel W. Stratton Award, 1971
• Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 1974 (group awards)
• IR-100: Laser stabilizer selected as one of “100 best new products of the year,” 1975
• IR-100: Laser wavelength meter (“Lambdameter”) selected as one of “100 best new products of the year,” 1977
• E. U. Condon Award, 1979
• Charles Hard Townes Award of the Optical Society of America, 1984, jointly with V. P. Chebotayev (Academy of Sciences, USSR)
• Davisson-Germer Prize of the American Physical Society, 1988
• Docteur Honoris Causa de l’Universite Paris Nord, 1989
• Frederic Ives Medal of the Optical Society of America, 1991
• Arthur L. Shawlow Prize of the American Physical Society, 1993
• Allen V. Astin Measurement Science Award, 2000
• Max Born Award of the Optical Society of America, 2002
• Presidential Rank Award from the Office of Personnel Management, 2002
• Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 2002 (group awards)
• Rabi Award of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society, 2004
• Légion d’Honneur Membership, 2004
• Nobel Prize in Physics, 2005
• Doctor of Science, honoris causa, University of Glasgow, 2007

References

• The Nobel Prize in Physics 2005
• CV and publication list
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• JILA
• U.S. Patent 6201638 Comb generating optical cavity that includes an optical amplifier and an optical modulator (John Lewis Hall)

External links

• Hall's website
• Group photograph including, right to left, Marlan Scully, Willis Lamb, John L. Hall, and F. J. Duarte.