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Nobel Jews
Portrait of David M. Lee
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, Own work · CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Nobel Prize in Physics · 1996

David M. Lee

He helped show that rare helium-3 becomes a frictionless superfluid near absolute zero, opening a new window on quantum matter.

The Nobel citation: “for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3”
Born
January 20, 1931, Rye, NY, USA
Shared with
Douglas D. Osheroff, Robert C. Richardson
Affiliation at the time
Cornell University, USA

Physics prize

1996

Shared with 2 other laureates.

Age that year

65years

Born in 1931.

Sources cited

16

Fact-checked September 24, 2026.

  • Helium-3 makes up only about a millionth of all helium. The prize-winning experiments used just a few cubic centimetres of the liquid.
  • The team was hunting for magnetism in frozen helium-3. Their first paper placed the new effects in the solid; within months their own measurements showed it was the liquid.
  • Years before the discovery, his Cornell lab began collapsing into the excavation for a new physics building. By luck, all the equipment was rescued first.
  • While on night guard duty in the Army during the Korean War, a talk about superfluid helium with a fellow soldier helped steer him into graduate physics.
  • The superfluid transitions his team found are now fixed points of PLTS-2000, the international temperature scale below 1 kelvin.

The breakthrough

Discovering superfluid helium-3 near absolute zero (1971-1972)

Most liquids freeze when cooled, but helium stays liquid almost down to absolute zero, minus 273.15°C. Below about 2 degrees above absolute zero, ordinary helium-4 becomes a superfluid: a liquid with no internal friction that can creep up and over the wall of a cup. That happens because helium-4 atoms are bosons, particles that can all crowd into one quantum state. The rare isotope helium-3 is a fermion, a kind of particle that refuses to share a state. Theorists suspected helium-3 atoms might still pair up, as electrons do in a superconductor, but by 1970 years of searches had failed. At Cornell, Lee and Robert Richardson, with graduate student Douglas Osheroff, cooled helium-3 by squeezing it. In their Pomeranchuk cell, compressing a mix of liquid and solid helium-3 froze more of it, and because freezing helium-3 at these temperatures absorbs heat, the sample got colder. In late 1971 Osheroff noticed small, repeatable kinks in the pressure. The team first blamed the solid. Then they applied a magnetic field that grew stronger from one end of the cell to the other, so each slice answered at its own radio frequency, like reading a building one floor at a time. The signals showed that the changes were in the liquid. Helium-3 had become superfluid about two thousandths of a degree above absolute zero. Later work showed three distinct superfluid phases, one of which appears only in a magnetic field.[3],[4],[6]

“Basic science provides long-term benefits for ourselves and our fragile planet and should be supported by all the world’s societies.”
David M. Lee, From his speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm on 10 December 1996, given on behalf of all three physics laureates.[5]

What it meant for humanity

Superfluid helium-3 has no everyday use. Its gift is understanding. The discovery showed that the laws of quantum physics, usually confined to atoms, can govern a whole sample of liquid, and it did so in a new way. Helium-3 atoms pair up while carrying spin and orbital motion, so the superfluid has inner structure and even different properties in different directions, more like a liquid crystal than like water. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the find set off intense research in low-temperature laboratories around the world. Anthony Leggett's theory of how the atoms order themselves in the superfluid earned him a share of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. Theory worked out for helium-3 later informed the study of other direction-dependent paired states, in high-temperature and heavy-fermion superconductors. In 1996 two research teams briefly heated small spots of superfluid helium-3 and let them cool again to test a theory of how cosmic strings may have formed soon after the Big Bang. There are practical legacies too. The superfluid transitions on helium-3's melting curve are fixed points of PLTS-2000, the international temperature scale adopted in 2000 for the range from 0.9 thousandths of a kelvin to 1 kelvin. To tell liquid from solid, the team used a magnetic field gradient so each part of the cell gave its own signal, which Lee called one of the first applications of the imaging idea behind hospital MRI. Lee also trained low-temperature physicists, Osheroff among them, and spoke up for basic research: at the Nobel banquet he argued that its benefits are long-term, and in 2008 he joined other physics laureates urging President George W. Bush to restore cut science funding.

  • Anthony Leggett's theory explaining how helium-3 atoms interact and order themselves in the new superfluid, developed in the 1970s to interpret the Cornell discovery, earned him a share of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics.[3],[10],[16]
  • The superfluid A transition (2.444 mK) and A-B transition (1.896 mK) on helium-3's melting curve are fixed points of PLTS-2000, the temperature scale adopted in 2000 for 0.9 mK to 1 K.[6],[9]
  • In 1996 two research teams used superfluid helium-3 to test a theory of how cosmic strings might have formed in the early universe; the theory appeared to apply to vortex formation in the liquid.[3],[4]
  • To show that the new phases were liquid, the team used a magnetic field gradient to get a one-dimensional picture of the cell, which Lee called one of the first applications of the idea behind MRI.[4],[6]
  • In May 2008 Lee was one of 20 US-based physics Nobel laureates who wrote to President George W. Bush urging emergency funding to reverse cuts to basic research at the Energy Department, NSF and NIST.[11]

Impact in numbers

We make no numerical claims: superfluid helium-3 exists only within about two thousandths of a degree of absolute zero and has no commercial or medical use, so any figure would be invented. Its value is knowledge. Before 1972, superfluidity had been seen only in helium-4. Helium-3 showed that neutral atoms can pair up the way electrons do in superconductors, but with pairs that carry spin and orbital motion, giving the superfluid an inner structure that superfluid helium-4 and ordinary superconductors lack. Theory built for it later informed work on other direction-dependent paired states, such as high-temperature and heavy-fermion superconductors; it served as a testing ground for ideas about the early universe; and its theory helped earn Anthony Leggett the 2003 Nobel Prize. Its phase transitions now serve as fixed points of the international temperature scale below 1 kelvin. Lee also trained students, including co-laureate Douglas Osheroff, and argued publicly for funding basic science.

Fundamental science

No number is given here on purpose. Some contributions cannot be counted honestly, and we would rather describe them than invent a figure.

The double edge

We found no documented harms tied to this discovery, which has no military or commercial use, or to Lee's conduct. Two points of context. As Lee noted in his Nobel lecture, helium-3 first became available for research after World War II as a byproduct of the nuclear weapons program, from the decay of tritium. And the discovery was a team effort: graduate student Douglas Osheroff first spotted the key signals, the team's first paper wrongly placed the effect in the solid, and theorist Anthony Leggett supplied the explanation.

Against the odds

Lee grew up in the United States, and we found no record of antisemitism aimed at him personally. His parents were born in New York City to Jewish immigrants from England and Lithuania who arrived in the late 1800s. They were part of a great migration: between 1881 and 1924 more than two and a half million East European Jews left their homelands, driven by persecution and lack of economic opportunity. His father, an electrical engineer, eventually became president of his company, although during the Depression of the early 1930s the family moved into the city for a few years to save money. The elite universities Lee attended had a record of limiting Jews. Harvard's Jewish enrollment rose from 6 percent in 1908 to 20 percent in 1922, and President A. Lawrence Lowell then pushed to restrict it. Harvard, Yale and Columbia all began restricting Jewish admissions in the 1920s. By one account, even in the 1950s these schools did not admit many more Jews in practice, and that changed only in the 1960s. Lee entered Harvard in 1948, within that era. We found no sign that such limits affected him, and he recalled his Harvard classmates as coming from all walks of life. His studies were also interrupted by 22 months of Army service during the Korean War.

  • —

    Other

    Context: his grandparents came to the US from England and Lithuania in the late 1800s. Between 1881 and 1924 more than 2.5 million East European Jews left their homelands, driven by persecution and lack of opportunity; why his own family left is not recorded.[1],[14]

  • —

    Quota

    Context, not a documented personal barrier: in the 1920s Harvard, Yale and Columbia began restricting Jewish admissions; Harvard's Jewish share had risen from 6 percent in 1908 to 20 percent in 1922. By one account the schools did not admit many more Jews until the 1960s.[12],[13]

  • 1952

    War

    After graduating from Harvard, he served 22 months in the US Army at posts in the United States during the final stages of the Korean War, delaying graduate school until 1954.[1],[7]

Jewish background

Both parents JewishRelationship to Jewish identity not documented

Lee wrote in his Nobel autobiography that his parents, both born and raised in New York City, were the children of Jewish immigrants who came to the United States from England and Lithuania in the late 1800s; one great-grandfather had settled there much earlier. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother an elementary school teacher. His autobiography does not discuss religious practice, and we found no source describing his personal relationship to Judaism. His wife, Dana, was born and raised in Thailand. The Jewish Virtual Library includes him among Jewish Nobel laureates.[1],[15]

Key dates

  1. January 20, 1931

    Born in Rye, New York, to an electrical engineer and an elementary school teacher, both children of Jewish immigrants from England and Lithuania.[1],[2]

  2. 1948

    Graduates from high school in Rye and enters Harvard University, where he majors in physics.[1]

  3. 1952

    Graduates from Harvard in January and in April enters the US Army for 22 months, serving at US posts during the last stages of the Korean War.[1],[7]

  4. February 1954

    Enters the University of Connecticut, partly because of a conversation about superfluid helium with a fellow soldier; earns a master's degree in 1955.[1],[7]

  5. 1955

    Starts a PhD at Yale under Henry Fairbank and becomes the first graduate student in that group to study pure liquid helium-3.[1],[4]

  6. January 1959

    Finishes his Yale PhD and joins Cornell University, where he builds a low-temperature physics laboratory from an empty room.[1],[4],[7]

  7. 1966

    Holds a Guggenheim Fellowship and spends a sabbatical year at Brookhaven National Laboratory, refining plans to cool helium-3 by compressing it.[4],[8]

  8. November 1971

    Graduate student Douglas Osheroff spots repeatable kinks in the pressure of the team's helium-3 cell near 2 to 3 thousandths of a kelvin.[3],[4]

  9. 1972

    Magnetic resonance measurements show the transitions occur in the liquid; a second paper reports new phases of liquid helium-3, soon confirmed as superfluid.[3],[4]

  10. 1976

    Shares the Institute of Physics Sir Francis Simon Memorial Prize with Osheroff and Richardson for the discovery.[1],[7]

  11. 1981

    Shares the American Physical Society's Oliver E. Buckley Prize with Osheroff and Richardson.[1],[7],[8]

  12. December 10, 1996

    Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics with Douglas Osheroff and Robert Richardson for discovering superfluidity in helium-3.[2],[3],[5]

  13. November 16, 2009

    Joins Texas A&M University's physics department for six months of each year, moving his research program and laboratory there from Cornell.[8]

Sources

  1. 1.David M. Lee - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (from Les Prix Nobel 1996, Nobel Foundation, 1997), 1996
  2. 2.David M. Lee - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  3. 3.The Nobel Prize in Physics 1996 - Press release (9 October 1996) · Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences / NobelPrize.org, 1996
  4. 4.The Extraordinary Phases of Liquid 3He (Nobel Lecture, 7 December 1996) · NobelPrize.org (from Nobel Lectures, Physics 1996-2000, World Scientific, 2002), 1996
  5. 5.David M. Lee - Banquet speech (10 December 1996) · NobelPrize.org, 1996
  6. 6.Award ceremony speech, Nobel Prize in Physics 1996 (Carl Nordling) · NobelPrize.org, 1996
  7. 7.David Lee, James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, Emeritus (faculty page) · Department of Physics, Cornell University
  8. 8.Nobel Prize Winner to Join Texas A&M Physics Faculty (Shana K. Hutchins) · Texas A&M University College of Science (archived by the Internet Archive), 2009
  9. 9.Supplementary Information for the Realization of the PLTS-2000 · Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, Consultative Committee for Thermometry, 2014
  10. 10.The Nobel Prize in Physics 2003 - Press release (7 October 2003) · Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences / NobelPrize.org, 2003
  11. 11.A Letter from America's Physics Nobel Laureates to President George W. Bush (6 May 2008) · FIRE website, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, 2008
  12. 12.How Jewish Quotas Began, by Stephen Steinberg · Commentary, 1971
  13. 13.How the Ivy League's Jewish quotas shaped higher education (Susan H. Greenberg, interview with Mark Oppenheimer) · Inside Higher Ed, 2022
  14. 14.A Century of Immigration, 1820-1924 (From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America) · Library of Congress
  15. 15.David M. Lee (1931 - ) · Jewish Virtual Library
  16. 16.Advanced information on the Nobel Prize in Physics 2003: Superconductors and superfluids · Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences / NobelPrize.org, 2003

Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 7 corrections made. How we check

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