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**(Boulder, CO)**

**January 31, 2006**

### Boulder scientist embarks on his Nobel year

#### Jan Hall hopes make an impact in science education

##### ![](media/image2.png){width="3.125in" height="2.21875in"}By Todd Neff 

[John L. \"Jan\" Hall]{.underline} received the mother of all diplomas
on Dec. 10, and is now embarking on what is known as \"the Nobel year.\"

Hall, 71, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics, accepting his Nobel
diploma and medal from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Until the 2006
prizes are awarded in October, the winners go through life carrying a
bit of a bullhorn. Hall hopes to use the opportunity to focus attention
\"in places where we\'re doing well or not doing so well in science
policy or education policy.\"

Immigration policy also is an area of keen interest to Hall. Science is
a global field, and he has worked with myriad graduate students and
collaborators from overseas.

\"It is those people, by and large, that have the energy and dedication,
and I\'m afraid with the restrictions in the number of visas for
graduate students, we\'re ensuring that we\'re going to gradually get
behind,\" Hall said.

Hall is a [National Institute of Standards and Technology scientist
emeritus and fellow of JILA, the joint University of Colorado-NIST
laboratory on the CU campus]{.underline}. He has been on the leading
edge of laser physics for 45 years. He once tuned a laser precisely
enough to remove the ink off a dollar bill and leave the paper
unscathed.

The 2005 Nobel Prize in physics was shared three ways. Roy J. Glauber of
Harvard University received half of the award for his work on the theory
of quantum optics. Hall and German physicist Theodor W. Haensch, 63,
shared the other half, \"for their contributions to the development of
laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency-comb
technique,\" according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Lindy Hall described the Nobel Prize announcement as being \"like a
meteorite fell in your front yard.\"

\"We had no chance to think about this,\" Lindy Hall said. \"It was just
foreign to our experience.\"

She sat next to the king at an intimate dinner at the Swedish royal
palace, nearly bumping heads with royalty when something fell to the
floor between them. Across the table, Jan Hall sat beside the queen.

\"The dialogue between the king and queen is just the same as in any
kind of family where the man sort of thinks he can do things in
carpentry,\" Hall observed in an interview Monday, during which he and
his wife extolled the Swedish royal family\'s personal qualities and
hospitality.

There were 660 people at the intimate dinner. The Nobel banquet seated
about 1,300.

It was a whirlwind time for the Halls, with a schedule so packed they
scarcely had time to see their families and friends who flew to Sweden
for the occasion. They were whisked about Stockholm in a Volvo limousine
\"so big it wouldn\'t fit in one picture,\" complete with police escort,
Lindy Hall said.

Their driver was the same woman who transported [NIST senior scientist
Eric Cornell]{.underline} about town in 2001, when Cornell and CU\'s
Carl Wieman shared the Nobel Prize in physics.

In an interview Monday, Cornell said he remembered his Nobel year fondly
but wouldn\'t necessarily want to repeat it.

\"I had this impression that it was kind of like my Miss America year,\"
Cornell said Monday. \"Come around next October, I can take off my crown
with tears streaming down my face and pass it to the next winner.\"

Cornell said he accepted 20 out-of-town invitations in 2002. The Halls
are grappling with a flood of requests.

\"The stack of invitations is getting higher and higher in e-mail and on
our desks,\" Lindy Hall said.

Jan Hall said they were considering local and other requests carefully
with an eye to making an impact in science education, doing such things
as judging science fairs and addressing students.

Hall is finishing up a narrative version of his Nobel lecture: a
discourse spanning cave paintings and femtosecond lasers that emit
infinitesimally short pulses.

And he continues to work in his JILA laboratory and as a consultant.

\"I had my soldering iron hot a few days ago,\" he said.

*Contact Camera Staff Writer Todd Neff at (303) 473-1327 or
nefft@dailycamera.com.*

URL:
<http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/county_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2423_4428795,00.html>

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