Physicists are very important to our society today, why? Because, they provide the basic answers to the mechanics of life in many ways. In this paper you will learn about the life of William D. Phillips, and his major achievements. You will learn how they cooled and trapped a laser's atoms, to make it possible to shoot one. .
William D. Phillips was born November 5th, 1948, in the town of Wilkes-Barre in the state of Pennsylvania. William grew up surrounded by friends, family, and religion. As a young boy, Phillips would love to read and write and would frequently visit the local library, reading up about the things that interested him. At an early age, he assembled bottled substances, which he called his "chemistry set"(1). His Parents gave him a microscope that he used for examining these substances. This led to a major interest in science. In 1956 Bill moved to Butler, a town near Pittsburgh where he decided that science was going to be his life's work. Throughout grade school Bill was enrolled in advanced or accelerated courses for his age, during this time he would work in his basement, playing with fire, explosives and rockets. However, science was not the only thing that interested him, he was also interested in tennis and swimming. In 1959 he moved to Camp Hill, enrolling in their high school. Through this period of time he studied physics and calculus. During the summer of his senior year, Bill worked at the University of Delaware, doing experiments for them. In the year of 1966 Bill received an academic scholarship to Juniata College in Pennsylvania. There his passion for physics grew and he started to research under Wilfred Norris, the Physics department chairman for Juniata. .
What Phillips was researching was, the X-band Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) Spectrometer and trying to determine discrepancies in the literature of about ESR line widths. What it is is the name given to the process of resonant absorption of microwave radiation by paramagnetic ions or molecules, with at least one unpaired electron spin, and in the presence of a static magnetic field.