Sunday, October 28, 2012

Douglas Osheroff (born 1945) is a physicist known for his work in experimental condensed matter physics, in particular for his co-discovery of superfluidity in Helium-3.
For his contributions he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics along with David Lee and Robert C. Richardson.
Osheroff joined the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics at Cornell University as a graduate student, doing res
earch 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 thousandths 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.
Douglas 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 advisers of Scientists and Engineers for America, an organization focused on promoting sound science in American government.
"I certainly have no idea of what God might be, if he was some great deity that created the universe and defined the physical laws...umm, so be it. But I personally doubt that that God intervenes in my own life."
Douglas Osheroff (physicist)
Douglas Osheroff (born 1945) is a physicist known for his work in experimental condensed matter physics, in particular for his co-discovery of superfluidity in Helium-3.
For his contributions he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics along with David Lee and Robert C. Richardson.
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 thousandths 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.
Douglas 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 advisers of Scientists and Engineers for America, an organization focused on promoting sound science in American government.
"I certainly have no idea of what God might be, if he was some great deity that created the universe and defined the physical laws...umm, so be it. But I personally doubt that that God intervenes in my own life."
Douglas Osheroff (physicist)

1 comment:

  1. Do not expect to feel God intervening in your life if you always shut him the door. God, said MLK, is a gentleman. He won't force you to do something, he gives you free will. But even Douglas Osheroff can have confessed:
    "I guess at some emotional level I accept the idea of God, but I don't know how God would manifest itself."
    (as quoted in Hargittai, Candid Science VI: More Conversations with Famous Scientists, p. 726)
    Don't call him an atheist just because he doesn't know. He is still searching.

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