Wolfgang Ketterle

Wolfgang Ketterle is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received a diploma, equivalent to a master’s degree, from the Technical University of Munich in 1982 and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Munich in 1986. After postdoctoral positions at the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching and at the University of Heidelberg focusing on molecular spectroscopy and combustion diagnostics, he arrived at MIT as a postdoctoral researcher in 1990. Ketterle joined the MIT Physics faculty in 1993 as Assistant Professor, became Professor in 1997, and was appointed to the John D. MacArthur Chair in 1998. Since 2006, he has been Associate Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) and served as Director of the NSF-funded Center for Ultracold Atoms from 2006 to 2023. His research group investigates the properties of ultracold atomic matter.

In atomic physics, Ketterle’s work centers on Bose-Einstein condensates, superfluidity, spin physics, and ultracold molecules. He created the first gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate, leading to his co-receipt of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics with Eric A. Cornell and Carl E. Wieman for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms and early fundamental studies of the condensates. Additional honors include the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics (2000), the Killian Faculty Achievement Award (2004), the Humboldt Research Award (2009), and the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (2016 and 2023). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2002), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999), and the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina (2005). Key publications are "Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Gas of Sodium Atoms" (Physical Review Letters, 1995), "Observation of Interference Between Two Bose Condensates" (Science, 1997), and his Nobel lecture "When Atoms Behave as Waves: Bose-Einstein Condensation and the Atom Laser" (Reviews of Modern Physics, 2002). Ketterle’s contributions have transformed the study of quantum degenerate gases, enabling precise explorations of quantum many-body physics.

Professional Email: ketterle@mit.edu