Sylvester James "Jim" Gates, Jr. was chosen, by the students and faculty of the Harvard Foundation, to receive the 2014 Scientist of the Year Award. The award recognizes internationally noted scientist for their remarkable scientific achievments and for promoting initiatives that serve to increase diversity in all areas of science, engineering and mathematics. It will be presented on March 28 from the President of Harvard University, the dean of Harvard College and the director of the Harvard Foundation.

Gates is known for his work in supersymmetry and supergravity, areas closely related to superstring theory, which seeks to describe the fundamental matter of the universe and is sometimes referred to as a “theory of everything.” He is the John S.Toll Professor of Physics and director of the Center for String and Particle Theory. In 2013, President Obama awarded him the National Medal of Science in a White House ceremony.

Using Atoms to Create Superfast Computers

The 2013 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers were announced on Monday, December 23rd. Gretchen Campbell, Adjunct Assistant Professor, was among the honorees. Campbell currently runs two experiments on ultracold atoms. One currently focuses on using a toroidal shaped Bose-Einstein condensate to build atomic analogs to electron-based superconducting circuits--so-called atomtronics. Her other experiment, currently in the building phase, will use strontium atoms to perform quantum simulations.

Campbell received a Ph.D from MIT in 2006, where she worked with Wolfgang Ketterle and Dave Pritchard. There, she used Rb BECs in optical lattices to study atom interferometry, nonlinear atom optics and the superfluid – Mott insulator phase transition. These experiments included the first direct observation of the atomic recoil momentum in dispersive media. More recently, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Jun Ye on precision measurements and frequency metrology with an 87Sr optical lattice clock.

See more at: http://jqi.umd.edu/news/jqi-fellow-gretchen-campbell-receives-pecase#sthash.7nceQz8C.dpuf

The first results from the LUX dark matter experiment are featured in Nature magazine's 2013 Year in Review. The Maryland LUX group consists of graduate students Attila Dobi, Richard Knoche, and Jon Balajthy, and is led by Associate Professor Carter Hall.

The Physics World award for the 2013 Breakthrough of the Year goes to "the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory for making the first observations of cosmic neutrinos."

UMD contributors to the IceCube collaboration include Greg Sullivan and Kara Hoffman; faculty and staff members Erik Blaufuss, John Felde, Jordan Goodman, Henrike Wissing, Alex Olivas, Donald La Dieu, and Torsten Schmidt; and graduate students Elim Cheung, Robert Hellauer, Ryan Maunu, and Michael Richman.