JILA News

JILA Fellow W. Carl Lineberger has been awarded the 2015 Dudley Herschbach Prize for Experiment, which includes a Dynamics of Molecular Collisions Medal. Lineberger is E. U. Condon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The 2015 Dudley Herschbach Prize for Theory and a Dynamics of Molecular Collisions Medal were given to Millard Alexander, University of Maryland Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Ana Maria Rey has been awarded an APS Fellowship by the American Physical Society. The award cited "her pioneering research on developing fundamental understanding and control of novel quantum systems and finding applications for a wide range of scientific fields including quantum metrology and the emerging interface between Atomic, Molecular, and Optical physics, condensed matter, and quantum information science." 

Carl Lineberger has won the 2015 National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences. The award was given for his "development of molecular negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy, and the fundamental insights into molecular electron affinities and intramolecular dynamics derived therefrom." Lineberger is the E. U. Condon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Fellow of JILA. The award is presented with a medal and a $15,000 cash prize.

Fellow Dana Anderson has won a CO-LABS 2014 Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research in Foundational Technology. Anderson’s work in the commercialization of cold-atom technology also received an Honorable Mention for the development of a strong public/private partnership.

Graduate student Kevin Cox, of the Thompson Lab, received an "ICAP 2014 Best Poster Presentation" award at this year's International Conference on Atomic Physics in Washington DC. His poster was entitled:  "Synchronization in Superradiant Lasers".

Two JILA graduate students and one undergraduate student were recognized with awards for their posters and presentations at the recent Boulder Laboratories Postdoctoral Poster Symposium, held at NIST Boulder (325 Broadway) on Wednesday, June 18, 2014. The Outstanding Presentation Award is a special recognition for selected poster presenters at the Boulder Laboratories Postdoctoral Poster Symposium. 

Phoebe Tengdin ‘13 likes things cold … very cold. That’s because she conducts experiments in a field known as atomic physics and quantum optics, developing systems to study the properties of atoms when they become extremely cold. If all goes according to plan, experimental apparatus that Tengdin is designing and building will be used miles above the Earth on the International Space Station.

The University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office (TTO) presented awards to Henry C. Kapteyn, Margaret Murnane, and Dana Anderson on April 24 for representing the spirit of innovation at CU-Boulder and best practices in commercialization of university technologies, according to a press release issued by TTO on April 21.

A project launching to the International Space Station in 2016 will take advantage of the microgravity and cold temperatures of orbit to do physics research that wouldn't be possible on Earth.

Read article on the Popular Mechanics website -->

President Barack Obama has named Ana Maria Rey as one of 102 recipients of the 2013 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers. Rey will receive her award at a Washington, DC ceremony in 2014.

Theorist Ana Maria Rey has received a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, or “Genius Grant.” She is the third JILA Fellow to win a genius grant, joining Deborah Jin (2003) and Margaret Murnane (2000). The MacArthur Fellowship includes a $625,000 unrestricted grant. Rey was cited for being an “atomic Physicist advancing our ability to simulate, manipulate, and control novel states of matter through fundamental conceptual research on ultra-cold atoms.”

Ana Maria Rey of JILA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has won the 2014 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award of the American Physical Society. Rey is one of the world’s top young theoretical physicists. Her specialty is atomic, molecular, and optical physics, an area in which she has shown a remarkable talent for suggesting practical applications of her theory to key experiments. Her hallmark collaborations at JILA and NIST include the fields of ultracold molecules, neutral-atom optical lattice atomic clocks, and quantum simulations. In addition to groundbreaking work at NIST and JILA, Rey collaborates with leading scientists around the world.

James Thompson has been named the winner of a 2013 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for his work on pioneering superradiant lasers. The superradiant laser is a quantum device that emits coherent lasing photons.

Theorist Ana Maria Rey has been given the 2013 “Great Minds in STEM” Most Promising Scientist Award. The honor is also known as the HENAAC (Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference) Award.

JILA researchers garnered two Outstanding Presentation awards at the Boulder Laboratories 10^th annual  Postdoctoral Poster Symposium held on July 17, 2013. Bryce Gadway, a research associate in the Ye group, was recognized for his presentation “Realizing a Lattice Spin System with Ultracold Polar Molecules.” Gadway’s co-authors included poster co-presenter Jacob Covey as well as Bo Yan, Steve Moses, Kaden Hazzard, Ana Maria Rey, Deborah Jin, and Jun Ye. Covey was cited for doing a commendable job as a presenter.

Michael Foss-Feig has won the American Physical Society's Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP) Award for outstanding doctoral thesis research in atomic, molecular, and optical physics. The award was announced at the 44th annual DAMOP meeting, held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, June 3–7, 2013.

Carl Lineberger joined fellow National Science Board members France Cordova (Chair of the Board, Smithsonian Institution) and Arnold Stancell (Vice President, Mobil Oil, ret.) on a whirlwind fact-finding tour of Antarctica November 26–30, 2012. The trio visited science and engineering facilities at the McMurdo and South Pole Stations, as well as field research sites in the Dry Valleys and historic huts on Ross Island.

Fellow Cindy Regal,  recent JILA grad Matthew Squires (Anderson group, Ph.D. 2008),  former postdoc Wen Li (Kapteyn/Murnane group), and JILA grad Ian Coddington (Cornell group, Ph. D. 2004) have received prestigeous Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, according to a White House press release issued July 23. Each award is for $1 million over 5 years.

Fellow Ana Maria Rey is Woman Physicist of the Month for June. Rey is  theorist working on many complicated problems in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) Physics.  She is well known for her collaborations at JILA with experimentalists Deborah Jin and Jun Ye as well as theorist Murray Holland, CU theorists Victor Guarie and Michael Hermele, and physicists at institutions in the United States and abroad.

The U.S. Senate confirmed JILA Fellow Carl Lineberger on August 2 as a member of the National Science Board. He was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama in April. As a member of the National Science Board, Lineberger's duties will include helping to establish the policies of the National Science Foundation. The National Science Board also serves as an advisory board to the president and Congress on issues involving science and engineering.