Session K4: Nobel Prize, Einstein Prize, and Pipkin Award Session

Understanding the Feebleness of Gravity

Regarded as a force between fundamental particles, gravity is ridiculously feeble compare to the other forces. On the face of it, this fact poses a major challenge to the program of achieving a unified theory. I'll show how modern understanding of asymptotic freedom and QCD can go a long way toward meeting this challenge. Then I'll discuss the implications of this circle of ideas, and identify some remaining problems.   

Highlights of the scientific work of Bryce DeWitt

The talk will present a brief overview of some of the many contributions of Bryce DeWitt to Theoretical Physics.   

Multidisciplinary applications of state-selected atoms

State-selected atoms provide powerful tools to attack a wide range of problems. I will discuss two examples: population inversion, which enables masers that can be used as high- stability clocks and for precision tests of Lorentz and CPT symmetry; and spin polarization of noble gases, which enables high-sensitivity gas-phase magnetic resonance, with applications in materials science and biomedical imaging.