Few are able to say, as can you, that their laboratory has contributed fundamentally to our understanding of the physical world. You co-invented the hydrogen maser, an atomic clock whose precision and stability has advanced research and such applications as radio astronomy and global positioning systems. You pioneered the field of Rydberg atoms, which has led to new areas of research and expanded our insights into quantum systems. And, most breathtakingly, scientists from around the world literally stood and cheered when it was announced that after twenty years of dogged effort, you had helped to successfully produce a Bose-Einstein condensate – a new form of matter, neither liquid, solid, nor gas – by taking hydrogen atoms to ultra-cold temperatures, thus opening a whole new field of physics. In the classroom, you have helped train some of the most accomplished scientists in the world, including one Nobel Laureate, and have served on many national committees charged with investigating important scientific and social issues. But to physicists world wide, and especially here in Williamstown, you are idolized as the man who made the ultra-cold ultra-cool, a term that should have been applied to physics, and to physicists, all along. In recognition of your distinguished achievement in the study of physics, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.
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