Douglas Osheroff

Douglas D. Osheroff
Douglas D. Osheroff
Born	(1945-08-01) August 1, 1945 Aberdeen, Washington
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	California Institute of Technology (B.S.) Cornell University (Ph.D.)
Known for	Discovering superfluidity in helium-3
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1996)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	Bell Labs Stanford University

Douglas Dean Osheroff (born August 1, 1945) is an American physicist who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics with David Lee and Robert C. Richardson "for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3"

Biography

Osheroff's father was the son of Jewish immigrants who left Russia and his mother was the daughter of Slovak immigrants. Osheroff, born in Aberdeen, Washington, earned his Bachelor's degree in 1967 from Caltech, where he attended lectures by Richard Feynman and did undergraduate research for Gerry Neugebauer.

Osheroff joined the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics at Cornell University as a graduate student, doing research in low-temperature physics. Together with David Lee, the head of the laboratory, and Robert C. Richardson, Osheroff used a Pomeranchuk cell to investigate the behaviour of ³He at temperatures within a few thousands of a degree of absolute zero. They discovered unexpected effects in their measurements, which they eventually explained as phase transitions to a superfluid phase of ³He. Lee, Richardson and Osheroff were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996 for this discovery.

Osheroff received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1973. He then worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey for 15 years, continuing to research low-temperature phenomena in ³He. In 1987 he moved to the Departments of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University, where he also served as department chair from 1993-96. His research is focused on phenomena that occur at extremely low temperatures.

Osheroff was selected to serve on the Space Shuttle Columbia investigation panel, serving much the same role as Richard Feynman did on the Space Shuttle Challenger panel.

He currently serves on the board of advisors of Scientists and Engineers for America, an organization focused on promoting sound science in American government.

Osheroff is left-handed, and he often blames his slight quirks and eccentricities on it. He is also an avid photographer and introduces students at Stanford to medium-format film photography in a freshman seminar titled "The Technical Aspects of Photography." In addition, he has taught the Stanford introductory physics course on electricity and magnetism on multiple occasions, most recently in Spring 2008, as well as undergraduate labs on low temperature physics.

In Oct 2010 Osheroff will be participating in the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Lunch with a Laureate program where middle and high school students will get to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize winning Scientist over a brown bag lunch.

Dr. Douglas Osheroff was the invited speaker at Howard University on Wednesday, November 10, 2010, for a special American Institute of Physics-sponsored symposium organized by Dr. Prabhakar Misra, Interim Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy. Dr. Osheroff delivered two colloquia: (1) Understanding the NASA Columbia Shuttle Disaster and (2) How Advances in Science are Made.

See also

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates
• Timeline of low-temperature technology

External links

• Photograph, Biography and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
• Stanford Physics Department - Osheroff
• Osheroff Learning of his Nobel Prize - Osheroff released this recording from his answering machine, which showed his initial annoyance with a 2.30am phone call.
• Freeview video interview with Douglas Osheroff by the Vega Science Trust
• Satirical account of party-goer not having cold enough beer like Osheroff might like by The Onion