Dr. Charles Brown, former member of Dan Stamper-Kurn’s Ultracold research group and currently an Assistant Professor at Yale, has recently published in Scientific American. In the article he explains in accessible language the pursuit of quantum singularities, how he found them, and where the research is headed.
Read the full article here
Dr. Charles Brown featured in Physics Today and Physics World as a part of #BlackinPhysics Week
Charles Brown, a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Dan Stamper-Kurn’s Ultracold Atomic Physics Group, was featured in Physics Today’s and Physics World’s #BlackinPhysics Week essay series. Charles organized the collection of essays featured on the site and co-authored an essay on Black representation in AI and quantum information science and engineering. The organizers behind #BlackinPhysics Week created this essay series to highlight important issues Black physicists face and to diversify the image of what a physicist looks like.
Dr. Charles Brown on Fresh Professor
In a fun, relaxed and informal fashion, Berkeley Physics postdoc Charles Brown discusses his trajectory up to now, basic tenets of ultracold atomic physics, what he hopes to do after postdoc life, and an article he wrote for AIP's Physics Today magazine that illuminates bias in physics, and ways to combat this bias. This discussion takes place on the Fresh Professor YouTube channel, created by Yale/UC Berkeley Chemistry PhD candidate, Jonathan Tyson.
Establishment of the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Present and Future Quantum Computation
The Institute for Present and Future Quantum Computation has been selected as a Quantum Leap Challenge Institute (QLCI) by the National Science Foundation, and will be supported by a 5-year $25M grant commencing September 1, 2020. The mission of this Institute is to address the fundamental challenges to the realization of quantum computation. This mission will be pursued by coordinated experimental and theoretical research on the three sub-challenges of developing quantum algorithms for present (NISQ) and future (error-corrected) quantum computers, of realizing quantum advantage over classical computation in an increasing range of systems and tasks, and of scaling quantum systems to larger size while maintaining fidelity and control. The Institute will also pursue an extensive program of education and workforce development, of research coordination within the Institute and across the broader quantum computing community, and of synergetic partnerships with industry, National Laboratories, government entities, and other quantum science and technology centers.
The Institute draws together a team of 27 world-leading researchers from 8 Universities. UC Berkeley will serve as the lead institution and will be represented by 13 investigators from the Departments of Physics (Ehud Altman, Hartmut Haffner, Joel Moore, Dan Stamper-Kurn, and Norman Yao), Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Shafi Goldwasser, Boubacar Kante, John Kubiatowicz, Umesh Vazirani, and Ming Wu), Chemistry (Martin Head-Gordon and K. Birgitta Whaley) and Mathematics (Lin Lin). The Institute is largely concentrated in California, and within the University of California system. The Institute also features strong partnerships with the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley, and the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA. The Institute’s scientific leadership team includes Dan Stamper-Kurn as Director, and Hartmut Haffner, Eric Hudson (UCLA), Umesh Vazirani, and K. Birgitta Whaley as co-Directors.
At the campus level, this Institute provides a solid foundation for the Center for Quantum Coherent Science. The Center’s role as the administrative home of the QLCI will be leveraged to allow the Center to act as the convening body for quantum science and technology research across the UC Berkeley campus.
California Institute for Quantum Entanglement virtual annual meeting
While we had planned an exciting in-person meeting at Berkeley in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly required us to change course. Instead, the CaiQuE collaboration held a shorter, remote meeting on March 24th. We concentrated on the task of research coordination. Wes Campbell (UCLA), Andrew Jayich (UCSB), and David Weld (UCSB) gave provocative talks on joint experimental technology development, applications of quantum simulation tools to precision measurement, and driven many-body quantum systems. These led to breakout discussions on the three topics and then the refinement of plans to collaborate across CaIQuE on these topics. In spite of the unusual venue, the virtual annual meeting drew about 50 participants. We concluded with each of us grabbing our own slice of CaiQue and a cup of coffee.
California Institute for Quantum Entanglement annual meeting
The annual meeting of the California Institute for Quantum Entanglement will be hosted in Berkeley on March 23-24, 2020. This two day meeting, starting late morning on the 23rd and ending afternoon of the 24th, will highlight scientific breakthroughs by the Institute, tutorial talks, subject reviews with some sharing of visions for future work, a poster session, a match-making session to connect undergraduate and graduate students with research and research-exchange opportunities, and a session involving representatives from industry.
Information on the meeting can be found here.
Berkeley Quantum Science and Technology seminars launched
Join us
Most Wednesdays starting March 6, join the group from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. in 375 LeConte Hall for talks and conversations over refreshments. Talks feature distinguished scientists in the fields of Math, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, and Computer Science.
Confirmed Speakers Include:
3/6 Umesh Vazirani, Berkeley. Quantum computing algorithms
3/13 John Preskill, Caltech. Quantum information science
3/20 Ashvin Vishwanath, Harvard. Quantum Materials
4/10 Dave DeMille, Yale. Ultracold chemistry
4/24 Birgitta Whaley (Berkeley). Complex and open quantum systems
5/1 Junqiao Wu (Berkeley). Engineering quantum systems
4/3, 4/17, and 5/8: Additional speakers to be announced.
Find schedule updates here.
Organized by CQCS, and by Holger Mueller (hm@berkeley.edu)
UCOP support for the California Institute for Quantum Emulation
The University of California’s Office of the President has selected the California Institute for Quantum Emulation (CaIQuE) to receive support through the 2019 Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives competition. Details found here https://www.ucop.edu/research-initiatives/programs/mrpi/2019-awards.html
BACAM 2018 meeting
The 4th annual Bay Area Cold Atoms Meeting was held at Stanford University, drawing together the Berkeley and Stanford AMO groups. Around 70 participants enjoyed talks, discussions, and lab tours at this great community-forming event. Thanks to Monika Schleier-Smith, Jason Hogan, and Hartmut Häffner for organizing, and TOptica and Newport for support!
Stamper-Kurn awarded Siemens/Humboldt Research Award
The Carl Friedrich von Siemens/Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, is conferred on established investigators from abroad to enable them to undertake collaborative projects with designated colleagues in Germany. The award supports Stamper-Kurn's collaboration with Professor Immanuel Bloch at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching.
Stamper-Kurn elected MPQ Distinguished Scholar
The Board of Directors of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics has honored Professor Dan Stamper-Kurn as an “MPQ Distinguished Scholar”, in appreciation of his groundbreaking contributions to the field of Ultracold Quantum Gases and Quantum Optics.