BIPM150 Interview: Nobel Laureate Prof. William Phillips on Optical Clocks and the Next SI Second
From the origins of the Metre Convention to the role of light and time, the evolution of the metric system and the transformative nature of the revised SI, measurement science has enabled global progress — and continues to drive future revolutions in quantum technology and beyond.
At the BIPM-UNESCO World Metrology Day Symposium, held during the 150th Anniversary of the Metre Convention, Professor William D. Phillips (Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997; NIST, USA) delivered a keynote address on the evolution of the SI, and spoke with the BIPM about optical clocks and the implications of the redefinition of the second.
Watch our interview
Follow along as Professor Phillips speaks to the BIPM about the evolutions in how we tell and define time, how ‘new’ optical clocks work, and what this means, in practical terms, in our day-to-day lives.
[12 minutes]
Watch his Keynote Address
Watch Professor Phillips' keynote address at #BIPM150 to learn about the impact the Metre Convention has had on mankind, from the Pharaohs to astronomers, and how the evolving SI system continues to shape science, society and future revolutions.
[39 minutes]
Professor William D. Phillips, Physicist and Research Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA and Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light—work that underpins today’s most precise atomic clocks.