Rate My Professor Chad Orzel

Chad Orzel is the R. Gordon Gould Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Union College in Schenectady, New York, a position he has held since joining the faculty in 2001. He received a B.A. in Physics from Williams College in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1999. His doctoral thesis research was conducted at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, focusing on ionizing collisions in samples of laser-cooled metastable xenon atoms. Prior to his appointment at Union College, Orzel served as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Physics Department at Yale University from 1999 to 2001, where he worked in the Bose-Einstein condensation group led by Mark Kasevich. In 1998, he spent three months studying ionizing collisions in metastable neon at the Institute for Laser Science, University of Electro-Communications, near Tokyo, Japan.

Orzel's research centers on atomic physics, including ultracold collisions, laser cooling, Bose-Einstein condensation, and quantum phenomena. His key publications include 'Squeezed States in a Bose-Einstein Condensate' in Science (2001), 'Creation of an Ultracold Neutral Plasma' in Physical Review Letters (1999), 'Optical Control of Ultracold Collisions in Metastable Xenon' in Physical Review Letters (1995), and 'Spin Polarization and Quantum-Statistical Effects in Ultracold Ionizing Collisions' in Physical Review A (1999). He has authored popular science books such as How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog (2009), How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog (2012), Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist (2014), Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects (2018), and A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time (2022). In 2021, Orzel was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for his contributions through the Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public. He teaches a wide range of physics courses and engages in science communication through blogging, TEDx presentations, and TED-Ed videos.