Daniel Kleppner

The National Medal of Science is "Awarded to individuals whose accumulated work has had a particularly significant impact on the present state of the physical, biological, mathematical, engineering, or social and behavioral sciences or that is deemed likely to strongly influence the future development of scientific thought." This award is given by the NSF at the database of recipients can be found here.

For his pioneering scientific studies of the interaction of atoms and light including Rydberg atoms, cavity quantum electrodynamics, quantum chaos; for developing techniques that opened the way to Bose Einstein Condensation in a gas; and for lucid explanations of physics to nonspecialists and exemplary service to the scientific community.