Professor David E. Pritchard
DoB: October 15, 1941
Place: New York, New York
Citizenship: USA
Education: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA B.S. (1962)
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Ph.D. (1968) (with Kleppner and Ramsey)
Thesis Title: Differential Spin Exchange Scattering: Sodium on Cesium
Postdoctoral Fellow: MIT Jan.-June 1968 (with Dan Kleppner)
Employment: M.I.T., Cambridge, MA.
Professor, 1980 – present, Associate Professor 1975-1980, Assistant Professor 1970-1975,
Instructor 1968-1970.
Honors: Member: National Academy of Science. Fellow: American Academy of Arts & Sciences,
American Academy for the Advancement of Science, American Physical Society, and Optical
Society of America. Broida Prize from APS 1991; Fannie and John Hertz Mentor's
Honorarium 1996; Centennial Speaker, APS 1998, Distinguished Traveling Lecturer of
LSTG/APS (1991-1993); Director, OSA (1997-2000) Div. Assoc. Ed., PRL (1983-1988),
Distinguished Visitor JILA (1989, 1998); Polaroid Fellow - Harvard (1962-1963) NSF
Predoctoral Fellow (1963-1968) Visiting Scientist, Stanford Research Institute (1975) Visiting
Professor, University Paris Sud @ Orsay (1983)
Services: General Co-chair, Int. Conf. Atomic Physics 2002,
Director Optical Society of America
(1997-2000), Div. of Electron & Atomic Physics of A.P.S.: Prog. Comm. (1974-77), (198182), (1983-85) (1990-93) Pub. Comm. (1980-83, 1987, chairman 1988) Exec. Comm. (198891) Nominating Comm. (1996-8) General, Organizing, Local and/or Prog. Comm., (1977-81);
ICAP (1980); Inter. Council on Quantum Electronics (1988-92); a Nobel Symposium (19946), Gordon Conf. (1991 & 93), & Intern. Conf. Laser Physics (1995-98), Inter. Conf on
Trapped Charged Particles & Fundamental Physics (1994-), SPIE Electrooptics 97, Snowbird
97, Intern. Workshops on Atom Optics & Interferometry (1992-), Modern Problems of Laser
Physics (1995-), Macroscopic Quantum Coherence Conf. (1997). OSA: Director (1996-99),
Chair Nominating Comm. (1998) Finance Comm. (1997-2000) Director, Interbuild
Corporation (1968-73) Broida Prize Committee (Vice Chairman, Chairman 1983-87, 91) CoChairman (with Arto Nurmikko), First Quantum Electronics & Laser Sciences Conf. 89 CoChairman of Program Comm. (with C. Shank), Intern. Quantum Electronics Conf. 87; NIST
Visiting Comm. for JILA (1989-92, chair 92) Univ. of Colorado Internal Review of JILA
(1991-92), chair 1994) N.A.S. Committee on Atomic & Molecular Science (1989-92)
Instigated & Organized Workshop on Controlling Atoms, D.E.A.P. Meeting 5/28/84-5/29/84,
Storrs, CT. Head, M.I.T. Physics-Industry Forum (1981-84), (Organized 2 day Symposia in
Optics for this in 1982 and 89). APS Laser Science Topical Group Steering Committee &
APS representative (1988-91) APS representative to Joint Council on Quantum Electronics
and International Council on Quantum Electronics (1989-92).
Relevant Publications:
Pritchard DE, Cronin AD, and Gupta S Atom Optics: Old ideas, Current Technology,
and New Results ANN Phys. Berlin 10 (1-2) 35-54, 2001
Atom Cooling, Trapping, and Quantum Manipulation, C. E. Wieman, D. J. Wineland, and D.
E. Pritchard Rev. Mod. Phys. 71 S253-S252 (1999) Centennial Issue
Accurate Atomic Mass Measurements from Penning Trap Mass Comparisons of Individual
Ions, F. DiFilippo, V. Natarajan, M. Bradley, F. Palmer, and D.E. Pritchard,, Atomic Physics
14, Boulder, CO 1994, Eds., D.J. Wineland, C.E. Wieman and S.J. Smith, New York: AIP
(1995) pp 149-175.
Quasi-resonant V<- ->R Transfer in Atom-Diatom Collisions, B. Stewart, P.D. Magill, T.P.
Scott, J. Derouard, & D.E. Pritchard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 282 (1988).
Trapping of Neutral Sodium Atoms with Radiation Pressure, E.L. Raab, M. Prentiss, A. Cable,
S. Chu, & D.E. Pritchard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2631 (1987).
Other publications (5 max):
Phillip Dukes and David E. Pritchard “Inductive Influence of Related Conceptual and
Quantitative Problems PERC 2001 Proceedings
David E. Pritchard “Web-Based Homework Administration and Tutorials” pp. 22-24 Tech
Ed99: NSF Workshop on Improving Ugrad Education in Math and Physical Sciences using
Technology. ed. A. Ellis (1999)
Pritchard, D. and a. N. Schmidt (1999). “Cybertutor: An Online Socratic Tutor.” Insider - MIT
Academic Compunting 10(2): 6-7.
Inouye S. Pfau T., Gupta S, D. Pritchard, and W. Ketterle Phase-coherent Amplification
of Atomic Matter Waves Nature 402 (6762) 641-644
Brief Overview of synergistic and Educational Work
Pritchard is the General Co-Chair of ICAP2002 – the international conference in Atomic Physics.
He is working to put the Proceedings on the web for the first time.
Pritchard served (1997-2000) on the Board of Directors of the Optical Society of America, dedicated to the
production and diffusion of optics knowledge.
Pritchard is a PI of the Ultra-Cold Atom Center at MIT and Harvard, dedicated to producing and
disseminating new research on UltraCold Atoms and BEC
Pritchard is currently the Undergraduate Major Coordinator for the MIT physics department.
.Pritchard has long been interested in helping students learn the skills necessary to formulate physical
problems mathematically and comprehend their solutions. He has written A Mechanics Workbook (photocopied many times, but unpublished) which has had some success in teaching a systematic approach to
problem solving in Newtonian mechanics. Professor Pritchard has taught small groups of freshmen in six of
the various versions of the MIT introductory mechanics cirriculum (he has also lectured both the advanced
and standard versions of this course). His major educational effort is Cybertutor.MIT, a Socratic tutor for
scientific and technical courses, and is also leader of the problem writing team for Mechanics. With
various collaborators he will be involved in extending this to E&M.
List of Collaborators:
S. Adams, V.S. Bagnato, L. Bao, J.E. Bjorkholm, K.R. Boyce, M. P. Bradley, A. Cable,
M. S. Chapman, S. Chu, E. A. Cornell, K. B. Davis, J. Derouard, F. DiFilippo, P. Dukes,
D.L.K. Fygenson, C. R. Ekstrom, R.W. Flanagan, Jr., A. Gallagher, P.L. Gould, T. D.
Hammond, M. D. Havey, K. Helmerson, S. Inouye, M. A. Joffe, D. W. Keith, W.
Ketterle, D. Kleppner, D.A. Kokorowski, G.P. Lafyatis, J. Landry, W.P. Lapatovich, A.
Lenef, J. Lehrner, A. Marjatta Lyrra, P. D. Magill, A. Martin, P.J. Martin, A.L.Migdall,
A.H. Miklich, P.E. Moskowitz, V. Natarajan, B.G. Oldaker, F. Palmer, J-L. Picque, M.
Prentiss, T. Porto, E.L. Raab, T. D. Roberts, B. Rohwedder, M.J. Rooks, R.A. Rubenstein,
G.A. Ruff, S. Rusinkiewicz, J. Schmiedmayer, T.P. Scott, E.T. Smith, H.I. Smith, N.
Smith, D.Stamper-Kurn, B. Stewart, R.E. Stoner, B.E. Tannian, R.C. Tiberio, Q.A.
Turchette, T. Walker, R.E. Walkup, R.N. Watts, S. Wehinger, R. M. Weisskoff, C.E.
Wieman, D. Wineland, M. Xiao, Huan Yao.
Thesis Advisor/Postdoctoral Scholar Associations (5 years):
GRADUATE (Ph.D.): Michael Bradley, 2000; David Kokorowski, 2001; R. Rubenstein, 1999,
Edward T. Smith, 1998; Troy D. Hammond, 1997
UNDERGRADUATE (B.S.): Martin Tiberg 2001, Roland Nhan Van Nguyen, 1998; Huan
Yao, 1997
POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATIONS: David Kokorowski, Todd Gustavson, Phil Dukes, Alex
Cronin, Al-Amin Dhirani, Jana Lehner, Trey Porto, Joerg Schmiedmayer.
Names and Institutions of individual's own graduate and postgraduate advisors:
Norman F. Ramsey, Harvard University;
Daniel Kleppner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology