Bay Area Sailor John Clauser Wins Nobel Prize
From sailing to science, it appears John Clauser from Walnut Creek has all the right stuff. Known locally as an avid sailor aboard his 1D48 Bodacious+, the perhaps lesser-known side of Clauser is his work as a physicist. To the science world, he is known as Dr. John F. Clauser, 2022 Nobel Prize winner. Clauser, 79, is one of three physicists awarded for their work in quantum information science — specifically, their experiments concerning quantum entanglement, a phenomenon that occurs when two separated particles behave as one.
Author of several science publications and winner of at least three prizes, Clauser, when not studying photons and other data, sails with both Berkeley Yacht Club and Richmond Yacht Club. His wife, Bobbi Tosse, is well known in Bay Area racing communities as a race PRO for BYC.
Below is an interview Clauser gave after learning of his Nobel Prize. By the way, despite the intense and high-profile nature of his work, the man is definitely a sailor at heart. It’s stated at the closing of his official CV — “John is also an avid sailboat racer.”
“Everyone said, ‘What a waste of time! Now start doing some real physics!’”
Take a listen to our conversation with 2022 #NobelPrize laureate in physics John Clauser where he discusses his journey in quantum mechanics and getting thrown out of Richard Feynman’s office. pic.twitter.com/RaSVc0oVRR
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 4, 2022
Congratulations, John! We’re honored to be sailing in company with you. (Although… does this mean you’ll now be using your physics skills to beat us all in every race?)
Hey, he’ll just use quantum entanglement to finish as soon as he starts!
Check his lazarette for dead cats.
Congratulations!
That is hilarious about him getting thrown out of Richard Feynman’s office ! To say that Feynman was quirky would be an understatement. He was a good friend of my father’s and a frequent guest in our home when I was a kid.
Big Congrats John !!!!!!!
What a wonderful acknowledgement of a great sailor, and someone who has contributed to Bay Area sailing for decades. Around 2000, I was on the Pacific Cup YC board with John, and I “wrote” a very complicated Excel spreadsheet that was intended to let sailors to see how there were doing during the race. It was not only complicated to create, but it was practically impossible to use, and I soon gave up. John sent me a copy of HIS program that did the same thing, which was far easier to use, it actually worked, and was elegantly written in C++ or some other language that was way too complicated for me. It was obvious I was dealing with someone who was really bright. At board meetings, he commonly would bring up some arcane point in his professorial manner that would be extremely insightful and germaine to the topic.
Good on ‘ya, John. Well done!
John is also an expert at Spinnaker Entanglement.
I remember John from the Friday night beer can races at the BYC back in the 1990’s. I remember his hard hat. Congratulations.
That Noble prize entitles the recipient One Dedicated Parking Spot on the University of California Berkeley Campus. Worth its weight in Gold.