PARIS (JTA) — Frenchman Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, who won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics with two American researchers, is the third Jew to receive a Nobel this year.

The others were Stanford University Professor Myron Scholes, named a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for economics, and Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco, who received the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Cohen-Tannoudji is a professor at the prestigious College de France and a member of France's Academy of Sciences.

Cohen-Tannoudji shared the award with Steven Chu of Stanford and William Phillips of Maryland's National Institute of Standards and Technology for developing methods to cool and trap atoms with lasers — work that in the future may be applied to medicine and space-related industries.

Cohen-Tannoudji said he was delighted with the honor but embarrassed by the bombardment of calls from the media and well-wishers.

"Of course I'm immensely happy, but I haven't had a minute to myself. After all, what I love to do is research and teach," said Cohen-Tannoudji, 61.