Wolfgang Ketterle receives Vannevar Bush College Fellowship » MIT Physics

Professor of physics will use US Division of Protection fellowship to review quantum science with ultracold atoms.

MIT professor of physics Wolfgang Ketterle was named certainly one of 10 recipients of the 2023 Class of Vannevar Bush College Fellowships by the U.S. Division of Protection (DoD).

Ketterle will use his award of as much as $3 million over 5 years for his analysis into quantum science with ultracold atoms on a 50-nanometer scale.

“With the Vannevar Bush school fellowship’s beneficiant and versatile funding, I can discover a brand new route of analysis,” says Ketterle, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics at MIT. “Utilizing a super-resolution method, we will put atoms solely 50 nm aside and research new quantum science. We are going to use dysprosium atoms for these research, since they’re probably the most magnetic atoms within the periodic desk. At a 50-nm distance, dysprosium atoms may have robust interactions that are purely magnetic. We need to use this to construct a purely magnetic quantum gate.”

Because the division’s flagship single-investigator award for fundamental analysis, the fellowship commemorates Vannevar Bush (1890-1974), the previous director of the U.S. Workplace of Scientific Analysis and Improvement. He was nicknamed “The Common of Physics” for his position in build up the science and expertise enterprise that drove america’ speedy progress as a army and financial superpower.

Bush obtained his PhD in 1916 from MIT, the place he later served as vice chairman and dean of engineering. He additionally based the protection and electronics firm that grew to become Raytheon in 1922.

The fellowship goals to advance “transformative basic analysis inside universities, nurturing high-risk concepts in pursuit of breakthrough discoveries, and giving researchers the liberty to discover the frontiers of data of their respective fields.”

The 2023 Class of Vannevar Bush College Fellows will be part of a gaggle of about 50 present fellows concerned in DoD analysis that features supplies science, cognitive neuroscience, quantum info sciences, and utilized arithmetic.  

“I’m happy to welcome these distinctive students to the DoD household,” says Beneath Secretary of Protection for Analysis and Engineering Heidi Shyu. “Their choices for the Vannevar Bush College Fellowship will permit them to actually change the course of science of their fields, and I do know they are going to set the division up for breakthroughs in our future capabilities.”

Previously often called the Nationwide Safety Science and Engineering College Fellowship, this award is sponsored by the Fundamental Analysis Workplace throughout the Workplace of the Beneath Secretary of Protection for Analysis and Engineering, with grants managed by the Workplace of Naval Analysis. For the fiscal 12 months 2023 competitors, the Fundamental Analysis Workplace obtained 190 white papers, from which panels of consultants invited 31 proposals, for a last number of 10 fellows.