Accepted Friday Oct 23, 2009
We present the first experimental realization and characterization of two-dimensional skyrmions and half-skyrmions in a spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate. The continuous rotation of the local spin of the skyrmion through an angle of p (and half-skyrmion through an angle of p/2) across the cloud is confirmed by the spatial distribution of the three spin states as parameterized by the bending angle of the l-vector. The winding number, w=(0,1,2), of the skyrmions is confirmed through matter-wave interference.