John Coolidge Adams (Feb.15, 1947), is an American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine, On the Transmigration of Souls, a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003), Shaker Loops, a minimalist work for strings, and the operas Nixon in China (which recounts Nixon's visit to China), and Doctor Atomic (which covers the Manhattan Project).