Ian Spielman, a
physicist at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaboration of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University
of Maryland at College Park, has been selected by the Maryland Academy
of Sciences as the Outstanding Young Scientist for 2010. The award will
be presented at a ceremony that will be held on May 20, 2010, at the
Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.
By shining laser light and applying an
external magnetic field with a gradient on a gas of neutral atoms in an
ultracold state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, Spielman
and his colleagues have synthesized an environment in which the neutral
atoms act as if they were charged particles swirling in a uniform
magnetic field (see “JQI
Researchers Create ’Synthetic Magnetic Fields’ for Neutral Atoms,”
at www.nist.gov/physlab/div842/synthetic_121509.cfm).
Providing new insights into the quantum
physics of charged particles in magnetic fields, this work promises to
shed light on complex quantum phenomena involving charged particles and
potentially enable an exotic new form of quantum computing that would
rely on charged particles dancing on a surface (see “Cross-Dressing
Rubidium May Reveal Clues for Exotic Computing,” at www.nist.gov/physlab/div842/rubidiu_022409.cfm).
A page on the award can be found at www.mdsci.org/programs/OYE_OYS/CurrentWinners.html
