William D. Phillips, Nobel Prize in Physics 1997 – Interviewed in 2008

Interview with the 1997 Nobel Laureate in Physics, William D. Phillips, at the 58th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany, 2 July 2008. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org. William Phillips discusses how his home life helped develop his early interest in science, the cultural differences he has observed in the way physicists approach problems (5:03), his incredibly precise thesis and how it helped establish the value of the fine structure constant (8:05), his move from MIT to the National Bureau of Standards (14:09), the work for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize (20:32), the application of laser cooling to atomic clocks (27:55), the inquisitiveness he looks for in a student (33:14), and how his faith is connected to his work (40:27).