Nobel Laureate Professor Phillips has had a profound effect on the development of atomic physics over the last forty or so years. He was the pioneer of using lasers to cool atoms, an advance that has revolutionised capabilities for fundamental research and applications in Physics and beyond.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the US National Academy of Sciences. Winning the Nobel Prize in Physics 1997, he was also awarded a US Presidential Rank Award in 2005 and a Service to America Award in 2006.

Professor Phillips’ family background includes Wales, and he is enormously proud of his links to the nation.