Mueller Lectures in the Physical Sciences to be held April 22 and 23

Jeff Kimble, the William L. Valentine professor and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, will present the 2009 Mueller Lectures in the Physical Sciences on April 22 and 23 at the Penn State University Park campus. The free public lectures are sponsored by the Eberly College of Science and the Department of Physics.

The series includes a lecture intended for a general audience, titled "Quantum Networks," which will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 23, in 117 Osmond Laboratory.  A social will be held preceding this lecture, starting at 3:30 p.m. in the Davey Laboratory/Osmond Laboratory overpass.  Kimble also will give a specialized lecture, titled "Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics," at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22, in 339 Davey Laboratory.

According to Kimble, "real-world quantum mechanics takes into account the dissipation and decoherence that arise from interactions of a quantum system with its environment."  In studying the role of these processes, Kimble and his students learn about how one might make, study, and preserve quantum superpositions and other exotic states. Kimble's research program focuses on the quantum mechanics of open systems, including quantum measurement on various fronts, cavity-quantum electrodynamics, and the quantum-classical interface.

Kimble earned a bachelor's degree at Abilene Christian University in 1971. He received a doctoral degree from the University of Rochester in 1977. After spending two years as a staff scientist at the General Motors Research Laboratories, he joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in 1979, where he eventually held the Sid Richardson Regents' Chair of Physics. He moved to the California Institute of Technology in 1989. Kimble is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the Optical Society of America. His awards include the Einstein Prize for Laser Physics in 1989, the Albert A. Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1990, the Max Born Award of the Optical Society of America in 1995, and the International Award on Quantum Communication in 1998.

The Erwin W. Mueller Memorial Lecture in Physics honors the late Erwin W. Mueller, who was an admired and respected member of the Department of Physics from 1952 until his death in 1977. Among his many accomplishments were important contributions to the field of microscopy. He invented the field ion microscope, which enabled him to be the first person to see individual atoms. He also invented the atom-probe field ion microscope, an instrument that can aim at a single atom in a crystal surface, separate it from surrounding atoms, and identify it by mass. For his numerous achievements, he was the first person at Penn State awarded the National Medal of Science.For more information about the lectures, contact Kelly Chadwick at (814) 863-9759.

Jeff Kimble, the William L. Valentine professor and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated January 9, 2015