Nobel prize winners in physics 2012

Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. NIST physicist David Wineland adjusts an ultraviolet laser beam used to manipulate ions in a high-vacuum apparatus containing an "ion trap. Such computers, by relying on quantum mechanics rather than transistors to perform calculations or store information, could someday solve problems in seconds that would take months on today's best supercomputers.

David J. Wineland, a physicist at the U. In announcing the winners today, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited Wineland and Haroche "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.

2012 nobel prize physics

Wineland got the call at about a. My wife got the call. I haven't actually asked her yet what they said, but she gave the phone to me," Wineland recalled shortly afterwards. This could have gone to a lot of other people. It's certainly a wonderful surprise.