Cohen-Tannoudji was born April 1, 1933, in Constantine, Algeria. He studied at Ecole Normale Superieure from 1953 until 1957, when he received his agrégation. He earned his D.Sc. (Ph.D.) from the University of Paris in physics in 1962. While a graduate student, he studied under 1966 Nobel Prize winner Alfred Kastler. His thesis advisor was Jean Brossel. Following in both of his mentors' theoretical footsteps, Cohen-Tannoudji has arguably become their most distinguished student. Also, while still a student as well as shortly after graduation, from 1960-64, Cohen-Tannoudji worked as a researcher at the Centre National La Recherche Scientifique in Paris. He then served as a professor at the University of Paris from 1964-73.

In his early research, Cohen-Tannoudji studied the phenomenon that formed the foundation of his later work. Cohen-Tannoudji worked methodically, predicting theoretically, then demonstrating his theories through experiments. His investigations concerned atoms and their energy levels. He found...