Robert Coleman Richardson

Robert Coleman Richardson
Born	June 26 1937 (1937--) (age 70)
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Field	Physics
Institutions	Duke Cornell
Alma mater	Virginia Tech Duke
Known for	discovering superfluidity in helium-3
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize in Physics (1996)

Robert Coleman Richardson (born June 26, 1937 in Washington D.C.) is an American experimental physicist whose area of research includes sub-millikelvin temperature studies of helium-3. Richardson, along with David Morris Lee, as senior researchers, and then graduate student Douglas Osheroff, shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics for their 1972 discovery of the property of superfluidity in helium-3 atoms in the Cornell University Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics.^[1][2][3]

He is currently the Floyd Newman Professor of Physics and Vice Provost for Research at Cornell University, although he no longer operates a laboratory. His past experimental work focused on using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to study the quantum properties of liquids and solids at extremely low temperatures.

Richardson attended Virginia Tech and received a B.S. in 1958 and a M.S. in 1960. He received his PhD from Duke University in 1965.

He is an Eagle Scout. There are four known eagle scouts among the Nobel Prize laureates: Frederick Reines, in addition to Richardson, for physics, and Peter Agre and Dudley R. Herschbach for chemistry.

See also

• Cryogenics
• Condensed matter physics

External links

• Cornell webpage
• 1996 Nobel Physics winners
• Nobel autobiography
• Freeview video Interview with Robert Richardson by the Vega Science Trust

References

1. ^ Osheroff, DD; RC Richardson, DM Lee (1972-04-03). "Evidence for a New Phase of Solid He3". Physical Review Letters 28 (14): 885-888. American Physical Society. Retrieved on 2007-08-05. 
2. ^ Osheroff, DD; WJ Gully, RC Richardson, DM Lee (1972-10-02). "New Magnetic Phenomena in Liquid He3 below 3mK". Physical Review Letters 29 (14): 920-923. American Physical Society. Retrieved on 2007-08-05. 
3. ^ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1996. The Nobel Prize in Physics. Nobel Foundation (2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-05.

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