Colo. physicist wins Nobel Prize

"First of all, a lot of people have been working on advanced computers and atomic clocks for a long time. It's a bit embarrassing to focus on just two individuals," he said. "When they also told me that the prize was shared with a good friend, that was nice to hear."

Each award is worth about $1.2 million.

President Barack Obama called Wineland to congratulate him Tuesday evening, the White House said.

Haroche is a professor at the College de France and Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.

A native of Wauwatosa, Wis., Wineland earned a bachelor's degree in physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and master's and doctoral degrees in physics at Harvard University. Before joining the institute, Wineland was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Washington.