Eric W. Cornell

Eric W. Cornell is an American physicist known for his groundbreaking work in creating the first Bose-Einstein condensate in 1995, a state of matter formed at temperatures close to absolute zero. This achievement, which he accomplished alongside Carl Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle, allowed scientists to observe quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale. Their work earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. Cornell's research has significantly advanced our understanding of quantum mechanics and has implications for fields like condensed matter physics and quantum computing. He is also a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.