Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (born April 1, 1933) is a French physicist working at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, where he has also studied physics.

Related Topics:
April 1 - 1933 - French - Physicist - École Normale Supérieure - Paris, France

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Cohen-Tannoudji was born in Constantine when Algeria was still part of France. After primary and secondary studies in Algiers, Cohen-Tannoudji leaves Algeria for Paris to attend the École normale supérieure. Lectures are given by Henri Cartan, Laurent Schwartz or Alfred Kastler. In 1958 he maries Jacqueline, a high school teacher, who will give him three children.

Related Topics:
Constantine - Algeria - France - Algiers - Paris - École normale supérieure - Henri Cartan - Laurent Schwartz - Alfred Kastler

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Cohen-Tannoudji has to leave the laboratories of the École Normale to perform his military service for 28 months (longer that usual because of the Algeria war). In 1960 he returns to his institution to work on a doctorate degree, which he obtains at the end of 1962.

Related Topics:
Military service - Algeria war - Doctorate

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After his thesis, he starts teaching quantum mechanics at the Paris university. His lecture notes are the basis of the popular textbook Mécanique quantique he writes with two of his colleagues. He also continues his research work on atom-photon interactions, and his group develops the dressed atom formalism.

Related Topics:
Quantum mechanics - Atom - Photon

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In 1973, he becomes a professor at the Collège de France. In the early 1980s, he starts to lecture on radiative forces on atoms in laser light fields. He also forms a laboratory there with Alain Aspect and Jean Dalibard to study laser cooling and trapping. His work

Related Topics:
Collège de France - Laser - Alain Aspect - Jean Dalibard

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there will eventually lead to the physics Nobel Prize of 1997 for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light, shared with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips.

Related Topics:
Nobel Prize - Steven Chu - William Daniel Phillips

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