We conduct research on laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms, and on the development and application of nonlinear optical materials. Laser cooling is used to produce cold atoms, which can be confined in a far off resonance optical trap. Current research focuses on producing and trapping cold molecules for frequency standards, and on achieving long atomic coherence times for measurement of small physical phenomena (e.g., an atomic electric dipole moment). We are also examining nonlinear optics of these cold trapped atoms, optical nonlinearities of doped polymers and ion implanted silica, and the use of holography for correction of optical elements.