Wineland, David Jeffrey, 1944–, American physicist, b. Milwaukee, Wis., Ph.D. Harvard, 1970. Wineland has been a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, since 1975. He was the joint recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics with Serge Haroche for their ground-breaking experimental methods that enable the measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems. Working separately and using different methods, Haroche and Wineland found ways to study particles of matter and light without destroying them. Wineland trapped ions (electrically charged atoms) and measured them with light. The work done by the two physicists could offer a way to develop quantum computers, which could be far more powerful than current systems.
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