physics

John L. Hall

John L. Hall is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John L. Hall rather than just read about it. In short: John Lewis "Jan" Hall (born August 21, 1934) is an American physicist. He shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Theodor W.

Key takeaways

John L. Hall belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John L. Hall to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John L. Hall from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Lewis "Jan" Hall (born August 21, 1934) is an American physicist. He shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Theodor W. Hänsch "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence."

Biography Born in Denver, Colorado, Hall holds three degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology, a B.S. (1956), an M.S. (1958) and a Ph.D. (1961). He completed his postdoctoral studies at the Department of Commerce's National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he remained from 1962 until his retirement in 2004. He has lectured at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1967. Hall is currently a NIST Senior Fellow, emeritus, and remains a Fellow at JILA, formerly the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and adjoint professor at the CU-Boulder Physics Department. JILA is a research institute managed jointly by CU-Boulder and NIST. Hall shared half of the Nobel Prize with Theodor W. Hänsch for their pioneering work on laser-based precision spectroscopy and the optical frequency comb technique. The other half of the prize was awarded to Roy J. Glauber. Hall has received many other honors for his pioneering work, including the Optical Society of America's Max Born Award "for pioneering the field of stable lasers, including their applications in fundamental physics and, most recently, in the stabilization of femtosecond lasers to provide dramatic advances in optical frequency metrology". Hall is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President George W. Bush in May 2008, urging him to "reverse the damage done to basic science research in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill" by requesting additional emergency funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In 2015, Hall signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then-President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the successful COP21 climate summit in Paris. In 2018 Hall donated his Nobel Prize medal to the University of Colorado Boulder.

Honours and awards

National Carbon Company Fellow in Physics, 1957–1961 Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 1969 Samuel W. Stratton Award, 1971 Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 1974 (group awards) IR-100: Laser stabilizer selected as one of "100 best new products of the year," 1975 IR-100: Laser wavelength meter ("Lambdameter") selected as one of "100 best new products of the year," 1977 E. U. Condon Award, 1979 Charles Hard Townes Award of the Optical Society of America, 1984, jointly with V. P. Chebotayev (Academy of Sciences, USSR) Davisson-Germer Prize of the American Physical Society, 1988 Docteur Honoris Causa de l'Universite Paris Nord, 1989 Frederic Ives Medal of the Optical Society of America, 1991 Einstein Prize for Laser Science, 1992 Arthur L. Shawlow Prize of the American Physical Society, 1993 Allen V. Astin Measurement Science Award, 2000 Max Born Award of the Optical Society of America, 2002 Presidential Rank Award from the Office of Personnel Management, 2002 Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 2002 (group awards) Rabi Award of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society, 2004 Légion d'Honneur Membership, 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, 2005 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, 2006 Doctor of Science, honoris causa, University of Glasgow, 2007 Honorary Member of the Optical Society of America, 2007

References

External links

John L. Hall on Nobelprize.org CV and publication list National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) JILA U.S. Patent 6201638 Comb generating optical cavity that includes an optical amplifier and an optical modulator (John Lewis Hall) Hall's website Group photograph taken at Lasers '92 including, right to left, Marlan Scully, Willis Lamb, John L. Hall, and F. J. Duarte. Interview of John L. Hall by David Zierler on May 19, 2020, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John L. Hall

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John L. Hall claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John L. Hall before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John L. Hall ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John L. Hall

In research: John L. Hall appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John L. Hall in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John L. Hall is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1934 births, 21st-century American physicists, Alumni of the University of Glasgow, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John L. Hall outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John L. Hall in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John L. Hall means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John L. Hall out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John L. Hall in simple terms?

John Lewis "Jan" Hall (born August 21, 1934) is an American physicist. He shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Theodor W.

Why does John L. Hall matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John L. Hall?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John L. Hall.