James C. Bergquist
National Institute of Standards and Technology
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Primary Section: 13, Physics Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2009)
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Research Interests
From the time that I was a child, I was attracted to Relativity, Einstein's intuition, and Physics in general. I stumbled into AMO as a graduate student and was fortunate enough to study the art and science of laser physics with Noble Prize winner, Dr. John Hall. A National Research Council Fellowship, under the tutelage of Dr. Dave Wineland, brought me into the world of laser-cooling of single (and multiple), trapped ions for the pursuit of high resolution spectroscopy and metrology. I have never left this beautiful field of physics. Together with a host of visiting scientists as well as the other ion storage members--Wayne Itano, John Bollinger, Didi Leibfried and Till Rosenband, we have pursued high resolution metrology to the 18th decimal place. Our resolution permits meaningful earth-based laboratory studies of relativity as well as other tests of fundamental physics, which (in some cases) has negated the need of expensive and risky launches into outer space. Physics at the cutting edge--it has been and continues to be a joyous ride!
