Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (born April 1, 1933) is a French physicist and Nobel Laureate. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips for research in methods of laser cooling and trapping atoms. He is still an active researcher, working at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Cohen-Tannoudji was born in Constantine to Jewish parents when Algeria was a French territory. After graduating from the University of Constantine (Algeria), Cohen-Tannoudji left Algeria for Paris to attend the École normale supérieure. His professors included Henri Cartan, Laurent Schwartz, and Alfred Kastler. In 1958 he married Jacqueline, a high school teacher, with whom he had three children. His studies were interrupted...