David Jeffery Wineland (born February 24, 1944) is an American physicist at the Physical Measurement Laboratory of the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

(NIST). His most notable contributions include the

laser cooling Laser cooling includes several techniques where atoms, molecules, and small mechanical systems are cooled with laser light. The directed energy of lasers is often associated with heating materials, e.g. laser cutting, so it can be counterintuit ...

of trapped ions and the use of ions for quantum-computing operations. He received the 2012

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

, jointly with Serge Haroche, for "ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems."

Early life and career

Wineland was born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He lived in Denver until he was three years old, at which time his family moved to

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

. Wineland graduated from Encina High School in Sacramento in 1961.Class of 1961 Graduation List
encinahighschool.com In Sept. 1961–Dec. 1963, he studied at

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

. He received his bachelor's degree in physics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1965 and his master's and doctoral degrees in physics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He completed his PhD in 1970, supervised by Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr. His doctoral dissertation is titled "The Atomic Deuterium Maser". He then performed postdoctoral research in

Hans Dehmelt Hans Georg Dehmelt (; 9 September 1922 – 7 March 2017) was a German and American physicist, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989, for co-developing the ion trap technique (Penning trap) with Wolfgang Paul, for which they shared one-h ...

's group at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

where he investigated electrons in

ion trap An ion trap is a combination of electric field, electric and/or magnetic fields used to capture charged particles — known as ions — often in a system isolated from an external environment. Atomic and molecular ion traps have a number of a ...

s. In 1975, he joined the National Bureau of Standards (now called

NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

), where he started the ion storage group and is on the physics faculty of the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

. In January 2018, Wineland moved to the Department of Physics

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

as a Knight Research Professor, while still being engaged with the Ion Storage Group at NIST in a consulting role. Wineland was the first to laser-cool ions in 1978. His NIST group uses trapped ions in many experiments on fundamental physics, and quantum state control. They have demonstrated optical techniques to prepare ground, superposition and entangled states. This work has led to advances in spectroscopy,

atomic clock An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwee ...

s and quantum information. In 1995 he created the first single atom quantum logic gate and was the first to quantum teleport information in massive particles in 2004. Wineland implemented the most precise atomic clock using quantum logic on a single aluminum ion in 2005. Wineland is a fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

and the Optical Society of America, and was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, 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 ...

in 1992. He shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics with French physicist Serge Haroche "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems."

Family

Wineland is married to Sedna Quimby-Wineland, and they have two sons. Sedna Helen Quimby is the daughter of George I. Quimby (1913-2003), an archaeologist and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

, who was Professor of Anthropology at the

and Director of the Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum, and his wife Helen Ziehm Quimby.

Awards

* 1990 Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics * 1990 William F. Meggers Award of the Optical Society of America * 1996

Einstein Prize for Laser Science The Einstein Prize for Laser Science was a recognition awarded by the former Society for Optical and Quantum Electronics and sponsored by the Eastman Kodak Company. The prize, awarded in the 1988–1999 period, consisted of a 3-inch brass meda ...

of the Society of Optical and Quantum Electronics (awarded at ''Lasers'' '96) * 1998 Rabi Award from the

IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

* 2001 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science * 2003 Samuel Stratton Award * 2004 Frederic Ives Medal * 2007

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

in the engineering sciences * 2009 Herbert Walther Award from the OSA * 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, shared with Juan Ignacio Cirac and

Peter Zoller Peter Zoller (born 16 September 1952) is a theoretical physicist from Austria. He is professor at the University of Innsbruck and works on quantum optics and quantum information and is best known for his pioneering research on quantum computing ...

* T. Washington Fellows * 2012

, shared with Serge Haroche * 2014 Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

* 2017 elected Honorary member of OSA * 2019

Micius Quantum Prize The Micius Quantum Prize is awarded every year since 2018 "for promoting the quantum information science and quantum technology, technology research". The recipients are awarded one million Renminbi, Chinese yuan (about 150,000 US dollars) and a g ...

* 2020

IRI Medal The IRI Medal, established by the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) in 1946, recognizes and honors leaders of technology for their outstanding accomplishments in technological innovation which contribute broadly to the development of industry and ...

, established by the Industrial Research Institute (IRI).IRI Medal 2020
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Appearances

Wineland was a keynote speaker at the 2015 Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders.

References

External links