Osheroff used a Pomeranchuk cell to investigate the
behaviour of 3He at temperatures within a few thousands of a
degree of absolute zero. They discovered unexpected effects
in their measurements, which they eventually explained as
phase transitions to a superfluid phase of 3He. Lee,
Richardson and Osheroff were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize
in Physics in 1996 for this discovery.Osheroff received a
Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1973. He then worked at
Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey for 15 years,
continuing to research low-temperature phenomena in 3He. In
1987 he moved to the Departments of Physics and Applied
Physics at Stanford University, where he also served as
department chair from 1993-96. His research is focused on
phenomena that occur at extremely low temperatures.Osheroff was selected to serve on the Space Shuttle Columbia investigation panel, serving much the same role as Richard Feynman did on the Space Shuttle Challenger panel.He currently serves on the board of advisors of Scientists and Engineers for America, an organization focused on promoting sound science in American government.Osheroff is left-handed, and he often blames his slight quirks and eccentricities on it. He is also an avid photographer and introduces students at Stanford to medium-format film photography in a freshman seminar titled "The Technical Aspects of Photography." In addition, he has taught the Stanford introductory physics course on electricity and magnetism on multiple occasions, most recently in Spring 2008, as well as undergraduate labs on low temperature physics.In Oct 2010 Osheroff will be participating in the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Lunch with a Laureate program where middle and high school students will get to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize winning Scientist over a brown bag lunch.
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