Bates physics professor earns NASA’s ‘exceptional achievement’ award, plus $1.89 million in grant funding, for groundbreaking research in space

Professor of Physics Nathan Lundblad has received an award from NASA. He is collaborating with several students on the research and is shown here in his Carnegie Science Lab (Carnegie 146) with two of those students, Kona Lindsey ’23 of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Elias Veilleux ’23 (I gray shirt with glasses) of Orono, Maine Kona is shown with his laptop that display research images. Kona writes: “The image seen on my laptop is from an experiment run in the Cold Atom Lab on the International Space Station (ISS). It shows an ultracold gas bubble composed of rubidium atoms. The ring that is visible indicates that the atoms are occupying a shell, or bubble structure. You can see that the inside of the ring has few atoms, meaning the structure is truly hollow.”

Recognizing Professor of Physics Nathan Lundblad’s groundbreaking experiments in the Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the International Space Station, NASA has awarded him a $1.89 million grant extension and its prestigious Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.