Professors Jordan Goodman and Christopher Monroe have been named University of Maryland Distinguished University Professors. This designation is the campus’ highest academic honor, reserved for those whose scholarly achievements “have brought distinction to the University of Maryland.”
Professor Goodman joined the University of Maryland as an undergraduate student, and received his PhD in physics here in 1978 under Guarang Yodh. As a particle astrophysicist, he studies cosmic radiation bombarding the earth; the quest has taken him to many interesting observatories across the globe, including Milagro in New Mexico and IceCube in Antarctica. He is now the Principal Investigator and US Spokesperson of the newly-launched HAWC Experiment in Mexico's Sierra Negra mountains.
Professor Goodman is chair-elect of the campus Senate and a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He has received the University of Maryland President's Medal (2009), the Kirwan Prize for Undergraduate Education (2004), the University System of Maryland Regents Award for Excellence in Teaching (2000), the American Association of Physics Teachers’ top honor for teaching (the Richtmyer Lecture, 2001), the Physics Distinguished Alumnus Award (2015), and the CMNS Board of Visitors Creative Educator Award (2013).
Professor Monroe is a quantum physicist who specializes in the isolation of individual atoms for applications in quantum information science. After graduating from MIT, Monroe earned his PhD in physics in 1992 from the University of Colorado, under Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell. From 1992-2000, he worked closely with David Wineland at NIST-Boulder, demonstrating the first quantum logic gate and pioneered the use of atoms for quantum memory devices. In 2007 he became the Bice Zorn Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland and a Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute. In 2008, Monroe's group produced quantum entanglement between two widely separated atoms and for the first time teleported quantum information between matter separated by a large distance. Since 2009 his group has used ultrafast laser pulses for speedy quantum entanglement operations, pioneered the use of trapped ions for quantum simulations of many-body models related to quantum magnetism, and has proposed and made the first steps toward a large-scale, reconfigurable, and modular quantum computer.
He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science; he is a recipient of the Arthur Schawlow Prize and I.I. Rabi Prize, the President's Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the International Quantum Communication Award, and the CMNS Board of Visitors Distinguished Faculty Award.