Alfred Kastler was a German-born French physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics. He is known for the development of optical pumping. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1966, announced November 3, 1966. Alfred Kastler, “for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms”. Alfred Kastler: born 1902, Guebwiller, Germany (now France). Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).