NASA’s Cold Atom Lab on the International Space Station
(A Free, Virtual Lecture)
NASA’s Cold Atom Lab (CAL) launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in May, 2018; since that time it has been operating as the world’s first and only multi-user facility for the study of ultra-cold quantum gases in space. The unique microgravity environment of the ISS is utilized with CAL by a national group of principal investigators to achieve sub-nanokelvin temperature gases, to study and utilize their quantum properties in an environment free from the perturbing force of gravity, and to observe and interact with these gases in the essentially limitless freefall of Earth’s orbit. This talk will review the research explored with CAL and the technical accomplishments to operate, maintain, and upgrade CAL during its tenure in the microgravity environment of the ISS. CAL unlocks the potential to observe new quantum phenomena. The research (which was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech under a contract from NASA) has broad applications in fundamental physics and precision sensing to open the door for future quantum-enabled mission opportunities.
Dr. Jason Williams specializes in developing light pulse atom interferometers and optical atomic clocks, and their applications to both fundamental and applied physics in space. He currently serves as Project Scientist and a Principal Investigator for NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, a multi-user facility operating on the ISS dedicated to the study of quantum gases in space. He has been awarded both the prestigious Lew Allen Award for Excellence and the NASA Honor Award – Early Career Public Achievement Medal for significant early-career contributions to this field. Dr. Williams received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University, studying ultracold Fermi gases. He previously held a NIST NRC Postdoctoral RA in Professor Jun Ye’s lab at JILA (aka Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics) and the University of Colorado where he developed high-precision optical lattice clocks.
