John L. Hall

John Lewis "Jan" Hall (born August 21, 1934) is an American physicist. He shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Theodor W. Hänsch "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence." Born in Denver, Colorado, Hall holds three degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology, a B.S. (1956), an M.S. (1958) and a Ph.D. (1961). He completed his postdoctoral studies at the Department of Commerce's National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he remained from 1962 until his retirement in 2004. He has lectured at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1967. Hall is currently a NIST Senior Fellow, emeritus, and remains a Fellow at JILA, formerly the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and adjoint professor at the CU-Boulder Physics Department. JILA is a research institute managed jointly by CU-Boulder and NIST. Hall shared half of the Nobel Prize with Theodor W. Hänsch for their pioneering work on laser-based precision spectroscopy and the optical frequency comb technique. The other half of the prize was awarded to Roy J. Glauber.