Laureate Biography
Douglas D Osheroff shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics with David M Lee and Robert C Richardson for their discovery of superfluidity in the isotope helium-3. At extremely low temperatures, helium-3 behaves according to quantum mechanical laws, rather than the classical laws of liquids, with the result that the fluid has no internal friction, meaning that it can flow through the tiniest of cracks and even up the sides of containers.
Born on 1 August 1945 in Aberdeen, Washington, Osheroff was the second of five children. His father was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, while his mother’s family came from Slovakia.
His interest in natural sciences was evident from an early age; he dismantled toys from the age of six to play with their electric motors. This interest grew into a passion for conducting electrical and mechanical experiments that often involved an element of danger, such as constructing a home-made rifle. In his senior year at high school, Osheroff built a working X-ray machine from used parts.
To avoid comparison with his academically accomplished older brother, who went to Stanford University, Osheroff instead chose to attend the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he studied under Richard Feynman (who received the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for two years, and he received his BSc in 1967. In his senior year, Osheroff became fascinated with the physics of low temperatures, and as a result decided to go into solid state physics. He began graduate school at Cornell University in 1967, where he met Phyllis Liu, and they married in 1970.
It was here as a student working with Lee and Richardson that the crucial discovery was made in 1971. While investigating the properties of helium-3 under temperatures of just a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, Osheroff noticed the almost imperceptible fluctuations in the rate of pressure change, which marks the conditions under which helium-3 changes from a liquid to a superfluid. This discovery sparked intensive research into superfluid helium-3 and other so-called “quantum liquids”, as it enabled scientists to study the types of quantum mechanical effects in large, visible systems that could previously only be studied at the atomic and subatomic level.
In 1972, Osheroff moved to AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, where he continued his work into helium-3 superfluidity. Between 1973 and 1978 he measured many characteristics of the superfluid phases. He continued his research at Bell Laboratories as head of the Department of Solid State and Low Temperature Research until 1987, when he accepted the post of Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford, where he remains today. There, Osheroff has continued his research on both superfluid and solid helium-3 and their phases. He received Stanford’s Gores Award for excellence in teaching in 1991.
In 2003, following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when it disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, Osheroff was appointed to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He is also on the Board of Advisors of Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA).
Further reading
1996 Nobel Prize in Physics
Douglas Osheroff's Nobel Lecture
Douglas Osheroff’s lab page
Wikipedia: Douglas Osheroff
