JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey
Ana Maria Rey, a JILA and NIST Fellow, has been honored with the prestigious 2023 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship from the Department of Defense (DOD). The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, named after the visionary American engineer and science administrator, aims to support exceptional researchers with outstanding scientific and technological leadership. It provides recipients substantial financial support over five years, allowing them to pursue innovative and high-impact research endeavors.
Rey is one of ten scientists to be awarded this fellowship, with her research focusing on: "Harnessing Long-lived Multi-level Atoms in Optical Cavities for Quantum Simulation and Sensing," according to the DOD's website. Rey and the other 2023 Faculty Fellows will join a class of 50 or so other fellows whose research focuses vary from physics to neuroscience and beyond. As the website news announcement elaborates: "While pursuing individual research endeavors, the scientists will collaborate directly with defense laboratories, contribute their insights to DOD leadership, and engage with the broader national security community to enrich the collective knowledge base of the defense enterprise."
The 2023 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship will undoubtedly propel Rey on a new trajectory of scientific exploration and discovery. The impact of their future research endeavors promises to leave an indelible mark on the scientific landscape, making the world a better place for future generations.
"It is a great honor to receive the Vannevar Bush Fellowship," Rey stated. "It is very exciting since it will help push my research on long-lived multilevel atoms in optical cavities. These are extremely complex systems but with tremendous potential to push the frontier of quantum metrology and simulation. The goal is to develop theory models to guide Cavity QED experiments to uncover the rich and unexplored physics offered by photon-mediated interactions and the untapped opportunities encountered when more than two-internal levels per atom participate in the dynamics."
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.