Luis Orozco and his colleagues make francium because they think it is a perfect candidate to help understand the force behind beta decay.

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The Condensed Matter Theory Center (CMTC) recently hosted its 2014 Fall Symposium on campus. For 6 days in November faculty, postdocs and students highlighted the frontier areas of quantum condensed matter theory. The symposium was open to the public and attendees included current and former CMTC members.

The CMTC Fall Symposium, usually a week-long annual event, is held every year in October/November with talks by all CMTC members introducing everybody to the broad intellectual themes being actively pursued by the theorists at the center.

Below is the full list of this year's speakers and talks:

Maissam Barkeshli, Coherent Transmutation of Electrons into Fractionalized Anyons
Edwin Barnes, Robust quantum control using smooth pulses and topological winding
Philip Brydon, Topological superconductivity from phonons?
Meng Cheng, Majorana Zero Modes at the Edge of Integer Quantum Hall States
David Clarke, Artificial anyons in Hybrid Superconductor/Quantum Hall devices
William Cole, Magnetism and superfluidity of spin-orbit coupled bosons in one dimension
Sriram Ganeshan, Quantizing quantum theory with constraints on a set of conjugate variables: A natural formalism for parafermions
Pallab Goswami, Axial anomaly and negative longitudinal magnetoresistance: theory vs. experiment
Johannes Hofmann, Electron interactions in Dirac materials
Hoi Yin Hui, Majorana fermions in a ferromagnetic wire on the surface of a bulk spin-orbit coupled swave superconductor
Jason Kestner, Dynamical correction of two exchange-coupled spin qubits
Xiaopeng Li, Chiral spin superfluidity and spontaneous spin Hall effect in optical lattices
Dong Liu, Probing Majorana Physics in Quantum Dot Shot Noise Experiments
Xin Liu, Universal spin-triplet superconducting correlation of Majorana Fermions
Alejandro Lobos, Magnetic edge-states in strongly interacting one-dimensional topological Kondo insulators
Vlad Manucharyan, Single Cooper pair proximity effect in mesoscopic quantum dots
Stefan Natu, What can we learn from far from equilibrium dynamics in interacting Bose gases?
Jed Pixley, Unconventional Superconductivity near a Kondo Destroyed Quantum Critical Point
Juraj Radic, Stoner ferromagnetism in a thermal pseudospin-1/2 Bose gas Setiawan, Topological Phase Transition in Spin Orbit-Coupled Ultracold Fermi Gas
Diego Rainis, How real is the Majorana? - Critical discussion of the currently available experimental evidence
Bitan Roy, Theory of interacting surface states in cubic topological Kondo insulators
Jay Sau, Smoking gun detection of majorana modes through nonlocal "teleportation"
Tudor Stanescu, Topological Superconductivity in Proximity-Coupled Topological Insulator Nanoribbons
Valentin Stanev, Quasiclassical theory of p-wave nanowires
Robert Throckmorton, Quantum Multicriticality in Bilayer Graphene in the Presence of an Applied Electric Field
Xin Wang, Robust control of a spin qubit using noise-compensating pulses
Jimmy Williams, Quantum Nanoelectronics in Oxides
Justin Wilson, Repulsive Casimir effect between Weyl Semimetals
Yang-Le Wu, Braiding non-Abelian quasiholes in fractional quantum Hall states

Gretchen Campbell, Chirstopher Monroe, Edward Redish and Ian Spielman have won major awards from the American Physical Society (APS), the nation's largest professional organization of physicists. The prizes are awarded annually to honor the world's leading physicists.

Gretchen Campbell, Adjunct Assistant Professor, won the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award. She was chosen for “her pioneering contributions to the study of superfluidity in atomic-gas Bose-Einstein condensates, realizing atomic analogs to superconducting and superfluid liquid circuitry, including the use of weak links to create the first closed-circuit atomtronic devices.”

Campbell was an NRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Jun Ye's group at NIST, Boulder. She joined the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) as a Fellow in 2009 and currently runs two laboratories: one at NIST and one at UMD. At NIST, her lab studies superfluidity in an atomtronic circuit. Atomtronics is an emerging technology whereby atoms play the role of information carriers, analogous to electrons in conventional circuitry. Campbell’s lab has led the research progress in this area.

Christopher Monroe, Bice Zorn Professor of Physics, won the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science. He was chosen for "pioneering research in the use of lasers to realize the elements of quantum information processing with trapped atomic ions, including demonstrations of remote entanglement for quantum communication protocols and use of frequency combs for high-speed qubit manipulation and entanglement.”

Monroe's career in ion traps began when he was an NRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Dave Wineland’s group at NIST, Boulder. In 2007 he joined JQI, where he currently has five operational ion trapping laboratories. His labs explore a range of physics and ion trap technology. Notably, Monroe’s research group has been a leader in quantum simulations using trapped atomic ions, as well as the development of a modular, scalable architecture for quantum computing.

Edward (Joe) Redish, Professor and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, won the Excellence in Physics Education Award. He was recognized for his "leadership in the use of computers in physics education, applying cognitive research to improve student learning and critical thinking skills, tailoring physics instruction for nonphysicists, and guiding the field of physics education research through a period of significant growth."

For the past 20 years Redish's research effort has focused on physics education with an emphasis on the role of student expectations and understanding the kinds of difficulties physics students have with problem solving from introductory to upper division physics. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the AAAS, and the Washington Academy of Science and has received awards for his work in education from the Washington Academy of Science, the Maryland Association for Higher Education, Dickinson College, Vanderbilt University, and the Robert A. Millikan Medal from the AAPT.

Ian Spielman, Adjunct Professor, won the I.I. Rabi Prize in Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics. He was recongized for "the development of quantum simulations using ultra-cold atoms, creation of synthetic electromagnetic fields, demonstration of synthetic spinorbit coupling, and applications to studying new physical systems."

After an NRC (National Research Council) Postdoctdoctoral fellowship in NISTs Laser Cooling and Trapping group he was hired a physicist in that same group. He currently operates three research laboratories, one on UMDs campus in College Park and two at NIST, Gaithersburg. Spielman’s group has spearheaded innovative, versatile techniques that make neutral ultracold atoms behave unexpectedly, in some cases like charged electrons.

For a full listing of 2014 APS Award Recipients visit: http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/new-recipients.cfm