When it comes to ultrafast lasers, Margaret Murnane’s name is one of the best known for her work in this field of science.  Since 1999, she has been a professor at the University of Colorado’s NSF-funded JILA Physics Frontier Center, where she and her husband Henry Kapteyn pioneer research in ultrafast x-ray science.  Additionally, the two also own a small laser company.  Margaret is credited with building one of the fastest lasers ever, operating in matters of merely femtoseconds.  After a lecture at the National Science Foundation on ultra-fast lasers and their applications for nano- and materials research, Ivy Kupec from the NSF sat down with this well-published scientist who originates from County Limerick, Ireland to talk further about these uber speedy lasers, science and even Archimedes. 

Eric Cornell, NIST Fellow and Nobel Laureate tells the exciting story of how he and colleague Carl Weiman made the first-ever observation of a new state of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate, in 1995.  The breakthrough led to the duo, along with MIT physicist Wolfgang Ketterle, receiving the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics. 

On this PBS edition of the program NOVA, Making Stuff Colder, JILA Fellow and Nobel Laureate Eric Cornell talks with host David Pogue about ultracold science.  Appearing in the video at about 32:30 and throughout in audio commentary, Eric helps the audience understand the value to scientific discovery of working at near-zero Kelvin temperatures. 

Atomic Physicist Ana Maria Rey was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2013.  The Fellowship is a $625,000, no-strings-attached grant for individuals who have shown exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more.  Learn more at http://www.macfound.org/fellows. 

Professor Deborah Jin and her team invented an ingenious method of cooling molecules down to near absolute zero, the lowest possible temperature -- which has the effect of slowing them down.  In fact, they slow down enough for researchers to actually see what goes on during chemical reactions.  The study of ultra-cold molecules could lead to new precision-measurement tools, new methods for quantum computing and help us better understand materials that are essential to technology. 

What does it take to win a Nobel Prize?  It turns out that a sense of humor helps.  Meet some of the extraordinary scientists behind one of the University of Colorado Boulder's renowned joint institutes, JILA. 

Physicists at JILA have demonstrated a novel "superradiant" laser design with the potential to be 100 to 1,000 times more stable than the best conventional visible lasers.  This type of laser could boost the performance of the most advanced atomic clocks and related technologies, such as communications and navigation systems as well as space-based astronomical instruments. 

John Bohn (JILA), during FANO Memorial Symposium, "Resonances and Reflections: Profiles of Ugo Fano's Physics and Its Influences", held July 24, 2002 at The Institute for Theoretical, Atomic and Molecular and Optical Physics, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Dr. John Hall shares some of his thoughts and experiences developing the optical frequency comb, the discovery for which he shared the 2005 Nobel Prize.  The occasion was the 2010 (Colorado) Governor's Award for High Impact Research, sponsored by CO-LABS. 

The winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics reflects on a career spent with a fascination for lasers and science.  John L. Hall is a fellow and senior research associate at JILA, a joint institute of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  He was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics. 

Hall is known as a pre-eminent laser experimentalist, concentrating on improving the precision and accuracy with which lasers can produce a specific, sharp frequency or color of light, and the stability to hold that frequency.  His work has been essential to precision spectroscopy for physical and chemical analysis, new tests and measurements of fundamental physical laws and constants, time and length, metrology and fiber-optic communications. 

Margaret Murnane is a Fellow of JILA and a Professor in the Department of Physics and of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Colorado.  She received her B.S and M.S. degrees from University College Cork, Ireland, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989.  She joined the faculty at Washington State University in 1990, moved to the University of Michigan in 1996, and to Colorado in 1999.  Murnane and her group use coherent beams of laser and x-ray light to capture the fastest dynamics in molecules and materials at the nanoscale. 

With her research partner and husband Henry Kapteyn, she has made important contributions to the development of coherent x-ray sources and helped establish the foundations of attosecond science. 

Dr. Deborah Jin was awarded the Science and Environment Medal on September 28, 2004.  Jin created a new form of matter which could potentially unlock the key to superconductivity, a phenomenon with the potential to improve energy efficiency dramatically across a broad range of applications. 

Why Come to JILA? 

Contact Us

Mailing Address

JILA
440 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309

Phone/Fax

303-492-7789 (phone)
303-492-5235 (fax)

About JILA

JILA is a joint physics institute of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  We support an eclectic and innovative research program that fosters creative collaborations among our scientists.  Collaborations play a key role in the pioneering research JILA and the JILA Physics Frontier Center are known for around the world.  To learn more, visit our About JILA page.