a panoramic view of Marsh Lecture Hall at Yale University

Prize Lectures

Hanan Rosenthal Memorial Lectures

Hanan Rosenthal Memorial Lecture

The Hanan Rosenthal Memorial Lecture was established in honor of physicist Hanan Rosenthal, a brilliant graduate student at Columbia University and instructor at Yale. This annual lecture in atomic physics, Rosenthal’s field, is given by a distinguished leader in the field. Originally, the lecture series alternated between Columbia and Yale, which were both significant in Hanan Rosenthal’s career; in recent years, the lecture has been held only at Yale University.

Started in 1973

  • 44th: Jean Dalibard, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Collège de France (April 28, 2025)
  • 43rd: Francesca Ferlaino, IQOQI-Innsbruck, Austrian Academy of Sciences, “Supersolidity in dipolar quantum gases: when atoms behave as crystal and superfluid at the same time” (September 19, 2022) 
  • 42nd: Immanuel Bloch, Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, “Realizing Feynman’s Dream of a Quantum Simulator” (February 2019)
  • 41st: Alain Aspect, Institut d’Optique, “From the Einstein-Bohr debate to quantum information: the second quantum revolution” (February 2018)
  • 40th: Jun Ye, JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado, “Making the World’s Best Clock” (February 2014)
  • 39th: Markus Arndt, University of Vienna, “Macromolecular matter-waves and the experimental frontiers of quantum mechanics: On the relation between molecular zoology and Schrödinger’s cat” (April 2013)
  • 38th: Margaret Murnane, JILA, “Science at the Timescale of the Electron – Capturing the Fastest Motions in our Physical World” (April 2012)
  • 37th: Tilman Esslinger, ETH, “From Synthetic Quantum Many-Body Systems to Quantum Simulation” (April 2011)
  • 36th: David Pritchard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Are They Really Learning, and What Seems to Help?” (October 2009)
  • 35th: Tilman Pfau, University of Stuttgart, “Novel interactions in quantum gas” (January 2009)
  • 34th: Jean Michel Raimond, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, “Quantum jumps of light” (November 2007)
  • 33rd: Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, “Quantum Measurement:
    A problem becoming a resource” (October 2006)
  • 32nd: Wolfgang Ketterle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “New forms of quantum matter near absolute zero temperature” (December 2005)
  • 31st: Gerald Gabrielse, Harvard University, “Setting a Trap for Antimatter” (January 2005)
  • 30th: Deborah Jin, “Making Condensates with a Fermi Gas of Atoms” (April 2004)
  • 29th: Mark G. Raizen, “Guiding Neuronal Growth with Light New Frontiers in Controlling the Motion of Matter with Light: from single atoms to neurons” (November 2002)
  • 28th: Eric Cornell, JILA, “Bose-Einstein condensation: Science within a millionth of a degree of absolute zero” (November 2001)
  • 27th: Christophe Salomon, “Cold Atom Clocks” (April 2001)
  • 26th: Peter Zoller, “Quantum Computing and Communication with Quantum Optics” (March 2000)
  • 25th: Eugene Commins, “Search for Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron” (April 1999)
  • 24th: H. Jeffrey Kimble, “Quantum Information and Computation” (April 1997)
  • 23rd: Randall G. Hulet, “Bose-Einstein Condensation of an Atomic Gas” (October 1995)
  • 22nd: Philip H. Bucksbaum, “Above Threshold Ionization and Stron Field Coherent Control” (March 1995)
  • 21st: at Columbia, no information
  • 20th: Louis A. Bloomfield, “Magnetism in Cluster: Between Atoms and Solids” (April 1993)
  • 19th: V. Chetabaev
  • 18th: William D. Phillips, “Optical Molasses, New Laser Cooling Mechanisms, and the Coldest Gas in the Universe” (December 1989)
  • 17th: Paul Liao, “Optoelectronics: Present Status and Future Prospects” (April 1989)
  • 16th: Carl Weiman, “Atomic Physics Studies of the Electro-Weak Interaction” (September 1988)
  • 15th: John Briggs, “Molecular Orbitals in Atomic Physics” (February 1987)
  • 14th: David Wineland, “Laser Cooled Trapped Ions” (April 1986)
  • 13th: A. Ravu Rau, “The Atomic Electron Pair” (March 1985)
  • 12th: Serge Haroche, “QED with Rydberg Atoms in Cavities” (April 1984)
  • 11th: Peter M. Koch, “Excited Atom Physics” (January 1983)
  • 10th: Thomas F. Gallagher, “Resonant Rydberg Atom Collisions” (March 1982)
  • 9th: William H. Wing, “One-and-Two-Electron Molecular Ions” (February 1981)
  • 8th: Norman Tolk, “Quantum Interference in Ion-Atom and Ion-Surface Collisions” (March 1980)
  • 7th: Norman F. Ramsey, “Dipole Moments and Spin Rotations of the Neutron” (April 1979)
  • 6th: E. Norval Forston, “The Search for Parity Violating Optical Rotation in Atoms: Recent Results” (March 1978)
  • 5th: W. Carl Lineberger, “Photo Detachment Threshold Processes” (April 1977)
  • 4th: Joseph Macek, “Orientation and Alignment in Atomic Collisions” (March 1976)
  • 3rd: Theodore W. Hansch, “Doppler-Free Atomic Spectroscopy Using Lasers” (April 1975)
  • 2nd: Willis E. Lamb, Jr., “Irreversible Processes” (April 1974)
  • 1st: Ugo Fano, “Energy Conversion in Atomic Collisions” (March 1973)