[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 137 (Friday, October 12, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       COLORADO'S NOBEL LAUREATES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 12, 2001

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call attention to the 
tremendous accomplishments of two of my constituents, Dr. Carl Wieman 
and Dr. Eric Cornell. It was announced this week that Dr. Wieman and 
Dr. Cornell have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their 
work in creating a new state of matter. Dr. Wolfgang Ketterle, a 
professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was 
also awarded the prize.
  The goal of the scientists was to create Bose-Einstein condensation, 
an extreme state of matter predicted by Indian physicist Satyendra Nath 
Bose and later expounded upon by Albert Einstein.
  Beginning with atoms of rubidium gas at room temperature, the 
Colorado team--led by Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman, and including CU-
Boulder undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral 
researchers--cooled the atoms to less than 170 billionths of a degree 
above absolute zero. This low temperature caused the individual atoms 
to behave as one ``superatom.''
  To cause matter to behave in this controlled way has long been a 
challenge for researchers. Physicists were initially skeptical about 
the approach taken by Wieman and Cornell to create the condensate, but 
they soon came around when they recognized the advances the scientists 
were making.
  As the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted upon awarding the 
prize, this year's Nobel Laureates have caused atoms to ``sing in 
unison.'' The creation of Bose-Einstein condensate is a ground-breaking 
accomplishment that will significantly affect the scientific community, 
its work, and its direction for years to come. I am proud that the work 
of Dr. Wieman and Dr. Cornell is a result of federally funded research 
at the University of Colorado, JILA, and the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology. I am proud that the institutions in the 2nd 
Congressional District are capable of attracting and producing such 
talent. Finally, I am proud that these two men call Colorado their 
home.
  Again, I congratulate Dr. Wieman and Dr. Cornell for their 
extraordinary work and for the great honor that has been bestowed upon 
them.

                          ____________________