Physics postdoctoral researcher selected to meet with Nobel laureates in Germany

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Aishwarya Kumar, a postdoctoral researcher in physics at Penn State, has been selected to participate in the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, during which he will interact with Nobel laureates in Lindau, Germany. This year’s meeting, which takes place from June 30 to July 5, is dedicated to physics and will be attended by 40 Nobel laureates. The first meeting was held in 1951 and in 1953 the decision was made to include undergraduates, doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in this unique international forum for scientific exchange.

Kumar, who earned his doctorate in May 2019 working in the lab of Penn State Professor of Physics David Weiss, was chosen after a multi-stage competitive selection process among science scholars under the age of 35 at more than 200 scientific institutes, universities, foundations and research-based companies worldwide. Five hundred and eighty young scientists from 88 countries were selected to attend the 6-day meeting, during which the students and Nobel laureates will share their knowledge, ideas and experience, during lectures, discussions, master classes and panel discussions. Kumar is one of 14 young scientists selected to give a talk on his research.

“This is an exciting and unexpected opportunity for me,” said Kumar. “I am delighted about the prospect of meeting the laureates, many of whom laid the foundations of the sub-field of physics that I work in. It will be an incomparable experience to meet and learn from them, as well as share our research here at Penn State. It is also a fantastic opportunity to interact with talented young researchers from all over the world. It will allow me to be a part of a strong, international network of physicists, and I am honored to be representing the Weiss Lab and the Penn State Department of Physics.”

“We’ve made huge strides toward realizing a neutral atom quantum computer during Ash’s graduate career, including demonstrating high fidelity single qubit gates, high fidelity state detection, and 3D atom sortings,” said Weiss, Kumar’s graduate adviser and postdoc mentor. “Working in and often leading an excellent team of graduate students that has included Yang Wang, Tsung-Yao Wu and Felipe Giraldo, Ash has been integrally important to designing and executing these advances, as well as planning our next steps. Besides learning from Nobel laureates, I'm excited that he will get a chance to share his work with them.”