Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, May 2, 2005 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Wendell T. Hill, III

"Atoms, Molecules, and Light: Physics Serving Society"

ABSTRACT -- Research in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) science is driven by curiosity, a deep-seated yearning to discover what things are made of and how things work. The two-fold goal of AMO research is to probe and manipulate the behavior and properties of the constituents of material at the macroscopic, mesoscopic, and atomic levels. This is possible by observing and exploiting the interaction of atoms and molecules with each other, with electrons, solids and liquids, and with external forces such as those associated with electric and magnetic fields produced by light. The invention of the laser, adapted to AMO science, has led to remarkable discoveries, from novel medical devices to the weirdness of the quantum world. This talk will review recent advances in these areas.

SPEAKER -- Wendell T. Hill III received the Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford Univ. and currently holds the rank of Professor in the Institute of Physical Science & Technology and the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining the faculty at the Univ. of Maryland, he was an NRC Postdoctoral fellow at NIST, Gaithersburg and has held visiting positions at Instituto Venezalano de Investigaciones, Universite de Paris, Orsay and at JILA,University Of Colorado. His research interests range from ultrafast dynamics to quantum information.