Dennis Gardner, JILA.
Former JILAn Dennis F. Gardner Jr. (Kapteyn-Murnane group) has been awarded the 2017 American Physical Society’s Carl E. Anderson Division of Laser Science Dissertation Award for his doctoral work in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging. Gardner received $1,000 and a certificate citing his contribution to laser science.
Gardner’s thesis, entitled “Coherent diffractive imaging near the spatio-temporal limit with high harmonic sources” (2017), demonstrates the highest resolution-to-wavelength ratio ever achieved with coherent diffractive imaging. These advances to imaging are critical for advancing nanoelectronics, data storage, and nanoengineered systems.
Gardner is currently a Research Physicist at Sotera Defense Solutions, Inc. in Washington D.C.
Gardner graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Bachelor of Arts in physics before joining the Kapteyn-Murnane group at JILA in the summer of 2011. During his time at JILA, he was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship (2011) and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2011). He also won the Optical Society’s Emil Wolf Outstanding Paper Competition in 2015.
The Carl E. Anderson Division of Laser Science Dissertation Award was established by the American Physical Society (APS) in 2013 to recognize novel applications of light-matter interactions in doctoral research, and to encourage effective written and oral presentations. Four finalists are selected to present their dissertation work at the Laser Science Conference. This year’s finalists also included Tal Galfsky from The City University of New York, Vivishek Sudhir from Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne, and Shuo Sun from the University of Maryland, College Park.
The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. PFCs also include creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented groups, and outreach to the scientific community and general public.