Already known as a leader in quantum science and a testbed for quantum computing, the University of California, Berkeley, is expanding its footprint with the hiring of four early-career experimental physicists who use quantum systems to explore new frontiers in physics.
The new assistant professors of physics will augment a wide range of quantum research already underway in the departments of physics, chemistry and engineering, much of it in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They will arrive within the next year and will leverage the weird quantum properties of atoms and light to make sensitive detectors or improve quantum computing and networking.
Chiara Pancaldo Salemi, for example, employs the quantum properties of superconducting circuits to search for dark matter particles called axions. Aziza Suleymanzade is using entangled photons in optical fibers to network quantum computers. Victoria Xu squeezes light to improve detection of gravitational waves. And Harry Levine entangles trapped neutral atoms to explore new types of qubits and reduce the noise in today’s quantum computers.