Ketterle was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, and attended school in Eppelheim and Heidelberg.[4] In 1976 he entered the University of Heidelberg, before transferring to the Technical University of Munich two years later, where he gained the equivalent of his master's diploma in 1982.[4][5] In 1986 he earned a PhD in experimental molecular spectroscopy under the supervision of Herbert Walther and Hartmut Figger at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, before conducting postdoctoral research at Garching and the University of Heidelberg.[5] In 1990 he joined the group of David E. Pritchard in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT (RLE).[4] He was appointed to the MIT physics faculty in 1993 and, since 1998, he has been John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics.[5] In 2006, he was appointed Associate Director of RLE and began serving as director of MIT's Center for Ultracold Atoms.[5]
After achieving Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute gases in 1995, his group was in 1997 able to demonstrate interference between two colliding condensates,[6] as well as the first realization of an "atom laser", the atomic analogue of an optical laser.[7] In addition to ongoing investigations of Bose–Einstein condensates in ultracold atoms, his more recent achievements have included the creation of a molecular Bose condensate in 2003,[8] as well as a 2005 experiment providing evidence for "high-temperature" superfluidity in a fermionic condensate.[9]
Ketterle is also a runner, and was featured in the December 2009 issue of Runner's World's "I'm a Runner".[10] Ketterle spoke of taking his running shoes to Stockholm when he received the Nobel Prize and happily running in the early dusk. Ketterle completed the 2013 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:49:16,[11] and in 2014, in Boston, ran a personal record of 2:44:06.
M. O. Mewes; M. R. Andrews; D. M. Kurn; D. S. Durfee; C. G. Townsend & W. Ketterle (27 January 1997). "Output Coupler for Bose-Einstein Condensed Atoms". Physical Review Letters. 78 (4): 582–585. Bibcode:1997PhRvL..78..582M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.582. S2CID9560538.
Wolfgang Ketterle on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture 8 December 2001 When Atoms Behave as Waves: Bose-Einstein Condensation and the Atom Laser
including the Nobel Lecture 8 December 2001 When Atoms Behave as Waves: Bose-Einstein Condensation and the Atom Laser
