RIP Daniel Kleppner (1932-2025)

[robphy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kleppner
https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/daniel-kleppner/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/12/science/daniel-kleppner-dead.html

https://news.mit.edu/2025/atomic-physicist-daniel-kleppner-dies-0715

Professor Emeritus Daniel Kleppner, highly influential atomic physicist, dies at 92​

The “godfather of Bose-Einstein condensation” and MIT faculty member for 37 years led research into atomic, molecular, and optical physics that led to GPS and quantum computing.

Daniel Kleppner, the Lester Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Physics at MIT whose work in experimental atomic physics made an immense mark on the field, died on June 16 at the age of 92, in Palo Alto, California.

(1996) 1996 Killian Lecture: Daniel Kleppner, "Views From a Garden of Worldly Delights"

If I called the talk "Selected topics in Rydberg Atom Physics", you probably wouldn't have come.
...

(2014) Rydberg Atoms - Daniel Kleppner ( https://serious-science.org/?s=kleppner )


(2016) Daniel Kleppner - InfiniteHistoryProject MIT


(2020 Nov) Atomic Clocks - and a brief history of Time ( Lexington Computer and Technology Group )

• Kleppner Atomic Clocks - part one
• Kleppner Atomic Clocks - part two

(2022) Kleppner - The Deep History if AMO Physics - SPSAS on Quantum Fluids and Applications (February 28 - 2 pm to 3 pm)
-- loud audio glitch from 6m30s-7m30s

(2016) TIF Talks - Star Wars and Other Policy Fantasies

A presentation by MIT's Lester Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Physics Daniel Kleppner ’53 at The Bently Reserve in San Francisco on Feb. 20, 2016. Teach It Forward - The Campaign for Williams.

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NOVA | NOVA Short |The Strangest Form of Matter

(full video (cued up at &t=1:17:37) Absolute Zero ✪ PBS Nova Documentary Channel )

(2015) Daniel Kleppner - 2006 National Medal of Science - NSTMF (2m07s)


(2014) Dan Kleppner - sciencentral (5m10s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-i9imNO0kY

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AIP Physics History Network: Daniel Kleppner
https://history.aip.org/phn/11603018.html

https://www.mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=252248

https://inspirehep.net/authors/2244445
https://inspirehep.net/authors/2309639

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=G5sn6bsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra


"Broken Atomic Beam Resonance Experiment"
Daniel Kleppner, Norman F. Ramsey, and Paul Fjelstadt
Phys. Rev. Lett. 1, 232 (1958) - Published 1 October, 1958
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.1.232

"Theory of the Hydrogen Maser"
Daniel Kleppner, H. Mark Goldenberg, and Norman F. Ramsey
Phys. Rev. 126, 603 – Published 15 April, 1962
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.126.603

https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/a...stein-Condensate-is-Formed?redirectedFrom=PDF
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.882393

"Bose-Einstein Condensation of Atomic Hydrogen"
Dale G. Fried, Thomas C. Killian, Lorenz Willmann, David Landhuis, Stephen C. Moss, Daniel Kleppner, and Thomas J. Greytak
Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3811 – Published 2 November, 1998
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3811

("Bose-Einstein Condensation of Atomic Hydrogen"
Daniel Kleppner, Thomas J. Greytak, Thomas C. Killian, Dale G. Fried, Lorenz Willmann, David Landhuis, Stephen C. Moss
contribution to School of Physics "Enrico Fermi", session 140, 1998
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.physics/9812038 [Submitted on 20 Dec 1998] )


"An Introduction to Mechanics" - 2nd Edition
by Daniel Kleppner , Robert Kolenkow
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mechanics-Daniel-Kleppner/dp/0521198119?tag=pfamazon01-20
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_Mechanics
- https://www.physicsforums.com/search/22200136/?q=kleppner&o=date

 

[sbrothy]

One Hundred Years of Quantum Physics

Science and Anti-Science

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Dan was my PhD advisor. I learned a lot from him. He was a blessing to me.

 

[PeroK]

Classical Mechanics by Kleppner and Kolenkow was one of the first physics books I studied. It was very much my style of book. I spent many happy hours working through that book.

 

[mad mathematician]

Classical Mechanics by Kleppner and Kolenkow was one of the first physics books I studied. It was very much my style of book. I spent many happy hours working through that book.

Same here, I mean in my undergraduate years.
Someone back then recommended Kleppner's and Kolenkow's textbook. Tough exercises, I am not sure if I tried them all; but then I didn't really search for solutions in the net, and PF was a gem.