Nobel Physicist Carl Wieman's Speech Kicks Off Second Year of Project Fulcrum

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Carl Wieman spoke on Aug. 21 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in an address that kicked off the second year of UNL's Project Fulcrum.

Wieman, who is distinguished professor of physics at the University of Colorado-Boulder, shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics with two others for the first observation of Bose-Einstein condensation. The condensation, predicted by Albert Einstein in 1924, is the dramatic transformation of a gas at a sufficiently low temperature. To observe the Bose-Einstein condensation, Wieman and his team in 1995 cooled a gas sample to the unprecedented temperature of less than 100 billionths of a degree Celsius above absolute zero (approximately -273 degrees C.), the point at which all motion stops.

Titled "Bose-Einstein Condensation; Quantum Weirdness at the Lowest Temperature in the Universe," Wieman's talk was presented in the Nebraska Union Auditorium on the city campus at UNL.

"The BEC state is a novel form of matter in which a large number of atoms lose their individual identities and behave as a single quantum entity, the 'superatom,'" Wieman said. "This entity is the atom analogue to laser light, and although large enough to be easily seen and manipulated, exhibits the nonintuitive quantum behavior normally important only at much tinier size scales."

Wieman has an abiding interest in improving scientific literacy. He was one of six recipients of the highly competitive National Science Foundation Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award in 2001, which recognizes outstanding scientists who have demonstrated a significant commitment to science and math education.

Project Fulcrum is a collaboration between teachers, scientists and teacher educators that places graduate and undergraduate science students from the University of Nebraska in grades 3-8 in the Lincoln Public Schools to form partnerships with teachers. It is funded by a $1.79 million NSF grant and is coordinated at UNL by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, and Gayle Buck, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction.

Dr. Wieman and teacher Linda Splichal	Dr. Wieman and graduate student Steve Fischbein