Carl Edwin Wieman (born March 26, 1951) is an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and

educationist Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Var ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, and currently the A.D White Professor at Large at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. In 1995, while at the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

, he and

Eric Allin Cornell Eric Allin Cornell (born December 19, 1961) is an American physicist who, along with Carl E. Wieman, was able to synthesize the first Bose–Einstein condensate in 1995. For their efforts, Cornell, Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle shared the Nobe ...

produced the first true Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) and, in 2001, they and

Wolfgang Ketterle Wolfgang Ketterle (; born 21 October 1957) is a German physicist and professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research has focused on experiments that trap and cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute ze ...

(for further BEC studies) were awarded the

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

. Wieman currently holds a joint appointment as Professor of Physics and Professor in the Stanford Graduate School of Education, as well as the DRC Professor in the

Stanford University School of Engineering Stanford University School of Engineering is one of the schools of Stanford University. The current dean is Jennifer Widom, the former senior associate dean of faculty affairs and computer science chair. She is the school's 10th dean. List of ...

. In 2020, Wieman was awarded the Yidan Prize in Education Research for "his contribution in developing new techniques and tools in STEM education.
citation

Biography

Wieman was born in

Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2020 United ...

to N. Orr Wieman and Alison Marjorie Fry in the United States and graduated from Corvallis High School. His paternal grandfather Henry Nelson Wieman was a religious philosopher of German descent and his mother had

white Anglo-Saxon Protestant In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASPs are an ethnoreligious group who are the white, upper-class, American Protestant historical elite, typically of British descent. WASPs dominated American society, culture, and polit ...

family background. Wieman earned his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in 1973 from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

in 1977; he was also awarded a

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

, ''honoris causa'' from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1997. He was awarded the

Lorentz Medal Lorentz Medal is a distinction awarded every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was established in 1925 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctorate of Hendrik Lorentz. The medal is given for impor ...

in 1998. In 2001, he won the

, along with

and

, for fundamental studies of the Bose-Einstein condensate. In 2004, he was named United States Professor of the Year among all doctoral and research universities. In a 2020 interview given to

Federal University of Pará The Federal University of Pará ( pt, Universidade Federal do Pará, UFPA) is one of the three public universities maintained by the Brazilian federal government in the state of Pará. It was ranked as the 15th largest Brazilian university ...

in Brazil, Wieman recalls his youth and his journey as a physicist; the influence of other people, like teachers and his parents, on his trajectory; his path through science education and the foundation of the open educational resource PhET Interactive Simulations. Wieman joined the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thr ...

on 1 January 2007 and headed a well-endowed science education initiative there; he retained a twenty percent appointment at the

to head the science education project he founded in Colorado. On 1 September 2013, Wieman joined

with a joint appointment in the physics department and the Graduate School of Education. In the past several years, Wieman has been particularly involved with efforts at improving

science education Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process (the scientific method), som ...

and has conducted educational research on science instruction. Wieman served as Chair of the Board on Science Education of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

from 2005 to 2009. He has used and promotes

Eric Mazur Eric Mazur (born November 14, 1954) is a physicist and educator at Harvard University, and an entrepreneur in technology start-ups for the educational and technology markets. Mazur's research is in experimental ultrafast optics, condensed matter phy ...

peer instruction Peer instruction is an evidence-based, interactive teaching method popularized by Harvard Professor Eric Mazur in the early 1990s. Originally used in many schools, including introductory undergraduate physics classes at Harvard University, peer ins ...

, a pedagogical system where teachers repeatedly ask

multiple-choice Multiple choice (MC), objective response or MCQ (for multiple choice question) is a form of an objective assessment in which respondents are asked to select only correct answers from the choices offered as a list. The multiple choice format is mo ...

concept questions during class, and students reply on the spot with little wireless "clicker" devices. If a large proportion of the class chooses a wrong answer, students discuss among themselves and reply again. In 2007, Wieman was awarded the Oersted Medal, which recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics, by the

American Association of Physics Teachers The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) was founded in 1930 for the purpose of "dissemination of knowledge of physics, particularly by way of teaching." There are more than 10,000 members in over 30 countries. AAPT publications includ ...

(AAPT). Wieman is the founder and chairman of PhET, a web-based directive of

which provides an extensive suite of simulations to improve the way that physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and math are taught and learned.
Link
Wieman is a member of the

USA Science and Engineering Festival The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a bi-annual science festival held in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2010 by Larry Bock, the festival is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in the ...

's Advisory Board. Wieman was nominated to be The White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy Associate Director of Science on March 24, 2010. His hearing in front of the Commerce committee occurred on May 20, 2010 and he was passed by unanimous consent. On September 16, 2010 Dr. Wieman was confirmed by unanimous consent. He left that post in June 2012 to battle

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, ...

Selected publications

* * * * *Wieman, Carl, (2014). "Stop Lecturing Me", Scientific American, July 15, 2014, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stop-lecturing-me/

References

External links

Carl Wieman's blog
at ScientificBlogging.com * including the Nobel Lecture December 8, 2001 ''Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Dilute Gas; The First 70 Years and Some Recent Experiments''
Globe and Mail Article
at Patent Genius

taken at ''Lasers'' '95 including (right to left) Marlan Scully, Theodor W. Hänsch, Carl E. Wieman, and

F. J. Duarte Francisco Javier "Frank" Duarte (born c. 1954) is a laser physicist and author/editor of several books on tunable lasers. His research on physical optics and laser development has won several awards, including an Engineering Excellence Award in ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wieman, Carl 1951 births Living people People with multiple myeloma 21st-century American physicists Optical physicists American Nobel laureates Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Nobel laureates in Physics Lorentz Medal winners People from Corvallis, Oregon American people of German descent Stanford University alumni University of British Columbia faculty University of Colorado Boulder faculty Fellows of the Optical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Corvallis High School (Oregon) alumni University of Michigan faculty Sloan Research Fellows MIT Department of Physics alumni

Biography

Selected publications

See also

References

External links