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25/10/2024laboratory lifeAtom interferometryMetrology of simple systems and fundamental tests

Saïda Guellati-Khelifa and Pierre Cladé receive the 2024 Servant prize from the French Academy of Sciences

Saïda Guellati-Khelifa and Pierre Cladé have designed cutting-edge experiments for precision measurements using cold atoms.

© Académie des sciences – Mathieu Baumer

On October 15, 2024, the French Academy of Sciences awarded the 2024 Servant Prize to Saïda Guellati-Khelifa and Pierre Cladé. They have carried out cutting-edge experiments to achieve precision measurements with cold atoms. By measuring the recoil of an atom that absorbs a photon using atomic interferometry and studying the systematic effects related to this measurement, they were able to obtain an unprecedentedly precise measurement of the ratio between Planck’s constant and the mass of an atom. This measurement has allowed for the most precise test to date of quantum electrodynamics calculations and the Standard Model.

Saïda Guellati-Khelifa is a professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, a researcher at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, and deputy scientific director at CNRS Physics.
Pierre Cladé is a CNRS research director at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel.

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