"Atomic Clocks on Earth and in Space: Why We Need Them, How They Work, and What They Can Tell Us" is Free Public Lecture on 14 February

4 February 2004 --A free public lecture titled "Atomic Clocks on Earth and in Space: Why We Need Them, How They Work, and What They Can Tell Us" will be given on 14 February by Kurt Gibble, an associate professor of physics at Penn State. This event is the third weekly lecture in the 2004 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, an annual series designed as a free minicourse for the enjoyment and education of residents in Central Pennsylvania communities. The theme of the series this year is "It's About TIME." Gibble's lecture takes place from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park Campus.

Gibble will explain how an atom in an atomic clock can tell time. "Atomic clocks, which lose or gain only a second in a million years, make possible a number of prolific technologies ranging from navigation systems such as the Global Position System (GPS) to high-speed fiber-optic networks," he says. He also will reveal how Penn State research is leading the way to even more precise atomic clocks.

The world's best clocks use lasers to cool atoms to within a millionth of a degree of absolute zero. At such low temperatures, Gibble explains, quantum mechanics dictates that the atoms interact like waves in a way that limits the accuracy of the current clocks that use cesium atoms. "The Penn State atomic clock has shown a way to solve this quantum problem by using rubidium atoms, which perform far better than cesium," he says. As a result, the U.S. Naval Observatory is now building a number of rubidium clocks, several of which will synchronize the Global Position System.

Gibble is an associate Professor of Physics at Penn State. His research, which focuses on atomic clocks and the scattering of ultra-cold atoms, includes major projects involving fundamental studies of atomic scattering in juggling atomic fountains, Earth-based and space-based laser-cooled atomic clocks, and a new project on optical frequency oscillators and atomic clocks. He is the principal investigator for RACE, the Rubidium Atomic Clock Experiment, which is scheduled for flight on the International Space Station in 2010.

Gibble earned his doctoral degree in physics at the University of Colorado in 1990 and his bachelor's degree, with highest honors, in engineering physics at Lehigh University in 1986. He was a research associate at Stanford University from 1991 to 1993 and then a faculty member at Yale University, where he served as assistant professor from 1993 to 1998 and associate professor from 1998 to 2001. Gibble joined the Penn State faculty during the fall semester of 2001.

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science, with additional financial support provided by Pfizer Inc.
Thomas Building is located at the intersection of Pollock and Shortlidge Roads on the Penn State University Park Campus. Free parking is available in the Eisenhower Parking Deck behind Eisenhower Auditorium on Shortlidge Road. For access assistance contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information by telephone at (814) 863-8453, by e-mail at science@psu.edu. For more information about the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, click on the web link at <http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/frontiers>.

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