IN THE NEWS
Spring 2009
- We're delighted that Misha
Lukin has been awarded the APS I. I. Rabi prize for 2009. The prize
citation reads "For pioneering theoretical and experimental
work at the interface between quantum optics, quantum information
processing, and the quantum many body problem." More
info is available at http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/rabi.cfm.
Congratulations Misha.
- One of our alums, Andrei Derevianko (University of
Nevada-Reno) has been elected as an APS Fellow. His citation reads "For
elucidating the role of the Breit interaction in atomic parity non-conservation,
demonstrating the importance of higher-order non-dipole corrections
in low-energy photoionization, and for pioneering calculations of
higher-order many-body corrections to atomic energies and matrix
elements.
Fall 2008
- December: ITAMP former postdoc, Dr.
Robin Santra, has been selected as a recipient of the 2007
Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. The
award ceremonies at the White House and at DOE took place on December
19, 2008.
Robin Santra (DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois)
was recognized for his theoretical contributions to the field of atomic,
molecular, and optical science in the areas of high-order harmonic
generation and strong-field absorption and ionization; and for scientific
mentoring of students and the public.
The Presidential Early Career Award is the Nation’s highest honor for professionals
at the outset of their independent scientific research careers. Sixty-seven total
researchers were honored in a ceremony presided over by Dr. John H. Marbuger
III, Science Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office
of Science and Technology Policy. In addition to a citation and a plaque, each
winner receives up to five years of funding from their agency to advance his
or her research.
For full press releases, go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/12/20081219-10.html,
and http://www.energy.gov/news/6815.htm
- September: Alexander
Dalgarno, Phillips Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University
and Senior Research Physicist at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
celebrated his 80th Birthday at a symposium held in his honor
that featured highlights of his on-going scientific legacy. Professor
Dalgarno has made seminal contributions to our understanding of atomic
and molecular structure and spectroscopy, and processes involving
interactions of atoms and molecules with electrons, ions, and radiation.Over
a span of more than five decades he has applied his deep insight
regarding physics on the atomic scale to the physics of astronomical
environments, as well as the atmospheres of the earth and solar system
planets.
Dalgarno has educated and
worked with literally hundreds of students, postdoctoral fellows and
scientific collaborators. He has played an important leadership role
in the theoretical atomic, molecular and optical physics community by
creating the Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical
Physics, funded by the National Science Foundation. More information
about the workshop can be found on the workshop website: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/itamp/DalgarnoSymposium.html.
Spring 2008
Fall 2007
- Dr. Vasili Kharchenko's retrospective
of the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch and it's impact on his
generation living in Russia was published in the Opt Ed section of
the Boston Globe on Oct 9, 2007. Read his article "Behind
the Iron Curtain".
- Dr. Peter Rabl, who has just joined
ITAMP in Sep. 2007 as a Postdoctoral Fellow, was awarded the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Prize
of the Austrian Physical Society (OePG). Peter Rabl received this prize
in recognition of his Ph.D.-Thesis: "Towards Hybrid Quantum Processors:
Interfacing Quantum Optical and Solid State Physics", which he
submitted at the University of Innsbruck in October 2006. In this work
Dr. Rabl studied coherent interactions between AMO and solid state
based qubits in the context of new quantum computing architectures.
The
Ludwig-Boltzmann Prize is granted by the OePG every other year to a
talented scientist under the age of 35 for significant contributions
in the field of theoretical physics. The prize is currently endowed
with a monetary sum of 2200 Euros and is considered the highest Austrian
award for young physicists. The award ceremony takes place in the
presence of the Austrian Minister of Science at the annual meeting
of the OePG in Krems.
- Dr. Ana-Maria Rey Ayala, was awarded
this year's Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences prize by the Alejandro
Angel Escobar Foundation in recognition of her Ph. D. Thesis titled "Ultra-cold
bosonic atoms in optical lattices". This work was done during
her graduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, and
focused on the dynamics of bosonic atoms loaded in optical lattices
close to the Mott Insulator transition.
The Alejandro Angel Escobar
Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, devoted
to the promotion of scientific investigation and social development
programs in Colombia through the annual awarding of the Alejandro Angel
Escobar Prizes in science and solidarity (www.faae.org.co/html/foundation.htm).
These prizes are considered as the highest scientific recognition in
Colombia, not only for the high qualifications of those who have
received them but also for the rigorousness of the juries that have
awarded them year after year.
Annually, one prize in each of the following fields is awarded to
fully completed works undertaken by Colombian citizens: Exact,
Physical and Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, and
Environment and Development.
Spring 2007
- Dr. Robin Santra (ITAMP
Postdoc 2004) was named the winner of the first IUPAP Young Scientist
Prize in AMO Phyiscs. Dr. Santra is currently an Assistant
Physicist in the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Group of the Chemistry Division
of Argone National Laboratory. He was selected among a large number of nominees
identified in a world-wide search. Santra, who received his Ph.D. in physics
from Heidelberg University in 2001 and was an ITAMP Postdoc in 2004 was cited
for his pioneering Theoretical contributions in the AMO field in particular
to the phenomenon of interatomic Coulombic decay.
The Young Scientist Prize was created by the IUPAP General Assembly
Meeting in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 2005 to recognize outstanding
young scientists who have already made significant contributions
to their field of research early in their career within the first
8 years after completion of the Ph.D. The award ceremony will
take place during the XXV International Conerence on Photonic,
Electronic and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC) in Freiburg, Germany,
July 25-31, 2007.
Fall 2006
- RIKEN Institue Research has featured a recent article by T Pohl, H. Sadeghpour, Y. Nagata and Y. Yamazaki (PRL 2006), on cooling of antihydrogen in a magnetic trap. http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/151/ The report was also picked up by Asahi Shinbun, one of the biggest newspaper companies in Japan.
Spring 2006
- Dr. Ana-Maria Rey,
ITAMP Postdoctoral Fellow, who won the 2005 The American Physics
Society's Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research Prize in Atomic,
Molecular and Optical Physics, has joined ITAMP as a postdoctoral
fellow in Fall 2005. She was presented with the prize in the 2005
DAMOP annual meeting in Lincoln, NE. You could read on her citation
for the prize here, http://www.aps.org/praw/dissdamo/05winner-rey.cfm.
- Dr. Thomas Pohl, ITAMP Postdoctoral Fellow,
was chosen as a finalist in the 2006 APS Thesis Prize. He will
present his thesis in an invited talk in the 2006 meeting of DAMOP
in May 2006.
- Dr. Thomas Pohl, ITAMP Postdoctoral Fellow,
was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max-Planck-Society
on July 12, 2006 in a ceremony in Frankfurt. The citation for his
medal reads: "For pioneering work on the theory and simulation
of ultracold plasmas, and in particular for the prediction,
that laser-cooling of a freely expanding plasma an lead
to its crystallization."
Summer 2006
- Prof. Eric Heller, ITAMP Scientist and Professor
of Physics and Chemistry at Harvard University, elected to the
National Academy of Sciences.
Fall 2005
Fall 2003
Fall 2001
Spring 2001
Summer 2001
Fall 2000
Spring 2000
- May 1, 2000 in Physical Review Letters, M.
D. Lukin,
S. F. Yelin, and M. Fleischhauer, publish "Light trapping predicted".
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