Adam Kaufman

Matt joined the lab as a National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Fellow after completing a PhD in James Thompson’s lab at JILA.  Matt’s thesis, titled “New tools for precision measurement and quantum science with narrow linewidth optical transitions” focused on coupling a large ensemble of strontium atoms to an optical cavity via narrow and ultra-narrow linewidth optical transitions.  A key outcome of this work was the first demonstration and characterization of superradiance from the 1 mHz linewidth strontium clock transition, which holds promise as a future high-precision o

Aaron was once a film major at Wesleyan university, but, after realizing there were far too many photons involved in film, turned his focus to photonics and quantum optics. He worked briefly in the molecular photophysics lab at Wesleyan, studying the dynamics of laser induced breakdown in water, before transferring to Caltech. There, he completed a senior thesis under Professor Oskar Painter titled "Hybrid Electromechanical Qubits as Quantum Memory".

Will joined the Kaufman Group after completing his undergraduate studies at Yale University, where he graduated as a physics major. Along the way, he pursued his interests in biophysics, complex mathematical systems, and scientific research that can make a positive difference in people’s lives by studying computational neuroscience with Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Physics John Murray. In the Murray Lab, Will studied organizing principles for gene expression in human cortex, specifically genes thought to relate to brain function or neuropsychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia.

Nathan joined the lab in October 2019 as a National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Fellow. Previously, Nathan worked in the lab of Jonathan Simon at the University of Chicago where he worked to create and understand materials made of light. Individual photons were imbued with mass by their confinement in a multimode optical cavity and were made to strongly interact by hybridization with Rydberg atoms.

Alec joined the Kaufman group after completing his PhD at UCSB in the lab of Ania Jayich. In Ania's lab, he worked on the development of a scanning nitrogen-vacancy center magnetometry tool for the high resolution imaging of condensed matter systems. He used this tool to study the structure of magnetic skyrmion systems and to image the crossover between novel transport regimes in graphene.

In our lab, we investigate how to apply the tools of atomic, molecular, and optical physics to  the microscopic study of quantum systems.