University of Maryland Physics Professor Christopher Monroe has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Monroe is also a Distinguished University Professor, the Bice Zorn Professor of Physics, and a fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science.

Monroe is one of 84 new members and 21 foreign associates elected in 2016, joining a select group of 2,291 scientists around the country recognized for their influential research and elected by their peers. Monroe is a scientific leader in trapping atomic ions and using their quantum properties for novel information processing tasks.

After graduating from MIT, Monroe earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Colorado. From 1992 until 2000, he worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, where he helped demonstrate the first quantum logic gate and pioneered the use of atoms for quantum memory devices. From 2000 until he joined UMD in 2007, Monroe was a faculty member at the University of Michigan.

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 taken the first steps toward creating a large-scale, reconfigurable and modular quantum computer. He recently co-authored a feature article in Scientific American on the promise of modular quantum computing systems.

Monroe is also a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Arthur Schawlow Prize in Laser Science from the American Physical Society, the I.I. Rabi Prize from the American Physical Society, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the International Quantum Communication Award, and the CMNS Board of Visitors Distinguished Faculty Award.