David M. Lee was born in Rye, New York, January 20, 1931. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother taught in elementary school. The family moved briefly to New York City during the depression years, but returned to Rye where Lee attended high school. He enjoyed exploring nature along the coast of Long Island Sound. While in his teens, he read The Mysterious Universe by Sir James Jeans, and he credits this book for his early interest in physics.
Lee graduated high school in 1948 and enrolled at Harvard University, where he earned a degree in physics in 1952. After graduation, he spent two years in the U.S. Army. During this time, he met a fellow soldier, Herbert Fried, who had studied under Paul Zilsel at the University of Connecticut; Zilsel was working on superfluidity. It may have been this meeting that convinced Lee to attend Connecticut for his masters work. He received his M.S. in 1955.
Lee was accepted at Yale University in the Ph.D. program in physics. His thesis was on liquid helium-3. Lee received his doctorate in 1959.
He accepted a position at Cornell University, where he taught courses and set up a laboratory to study low temperature physics. He has remained there for his entire career. He met and married his wife, Dana, during the early years at Cornell. During the 1970s, Lee and his team discovered that the helium isotope, helium-3, becomes superfluid at a temperature .002 of a degree above absolute zero. Superfluidity refers to the coordinated movement of atoms within a liquid that causes the liquid to flow without resistance. Lee rose through the academic ranks at Cornell and is currently a professor of physics.
In 1996, Lee received a phone call at 5:30 am informing him he was named co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize for physics. He still taught his 8:00 am class, although he replaced the planned lecture with a description of the experiment that produced the award-winning results.
Lee and his wife have two grown sons.
Awards and Honors
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1966
- Visiting Scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1966-67
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1974
- Visiting Professor, University of Florida, 1974-75
- Institute of Physics Sir Francis Simon Memorial Prize, 1976
- Oliver E. Buckley Slid State Physics Prize (American Physical Society), 1980
- Fellow, American Physical Society, 1982
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1982
- Visiting Professor, University of California at San Diego, 1988
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1990
- Member, National Academy of Sciences, 1991
- Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996
Sources
http://www.news.cornell.edu/science/Oct96/nobelprize.ltb.html
http://www.news.cornell.edu/science/Oct96/lee.bio.hrs.html
http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1996/lee-autobio.html
http://almaz.com/nobel/physics/1996a.html
http://felix.unife.it/Root/d-General/d-Physics/t-Nobel-prize-physics-1996
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