News & Events

10-26-21

This past year, a new two-story building took shape in the northeast corner of the Caltech campus. Though modest in design, what takes place inside the structure could transform the future of computing. The building is the AWS Center for Quantum Computing, the result of a partnership between Caltech and Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing branch of Amazon. The goal of the collaboration is to create quantum computers and related technologies that have the potential to revolutionize data security, machine learning, medicine development, sustainability practices, and more. "AWS will benefit from the ideas percolating here on campus," says Oskar Painter, John G. Braun Professor of Applied Physics and Physics and head of quantum hardware at AWS. Painter says quantum computing is still a very young technology, so it is crucial for development efforts to be directly connected to the latest research in academia. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS CMS Oskar Painter KNI Fernando Brandão

08-27-20

Five new Department of Energy centers will apply quantum information science to emerging technologies. The centers will develop cutting-edge quantum technologies for use in a wide range of possible applications including scientific computing; fundamental physics and chemistry research; and the design of solar cells and of new materials and pharmaceuticals. Caltech faculty will participate in four of the new science centers: the Quantum Systems Accelerator, led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, also known as Berkeley Lab; the Quantum Science Center, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Q-NEXT, led by Argonne National Laboratory; and the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, led by Brookhaven National Laboratory. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS EE research highlights MedE CMS Oskar Painter KNI Andrei Faraon

06-24-19

Applied physics student Harel Dor, advised by Professor Oskar Painter, is a recipient of the 2019 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. This summer he is going to work on navigational software for the upcoming Mars Science Helicopter, which will enable scientific exploration of Mars environments previously thought inaccessible at unprecedented speeds. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to engineering students with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.

Tags: APhMS honors Henry Ford II Scholar Award Oskar Painter Harel Dor

12-23-17

Professors Harry A. Atwater, Jr., Babak Hassibi, Oskar J. Painter, John Seinfeld, Joel A. Tropp, Kerry J. Vahala, and Paul Wennberg have been named by Clarivate Analytics and Web of Science as 2017 Highly Cited Researchers. Their research ranks among the top 1% most cited works in their fields and they are being recognizes for their dedication and focus to expanding the sphere of human knowledge.  [List of recipients]

Tags: APhMS honors Harry Atwater Paul Wennberg Oskar Painter John Seinfeld Joel Tropp Kerry Vahala Babak Hassibi

05-15-17

Applied Physics student Sarang Mittal, advised by Professor Oskar Painter, is a recipient of the 2017 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. He is currently working with Professor Maria Spiropulu’s team to explore the applications of deep learning and artificial intelligence in high energy particle physics. Using data from the Compact Muon Solenoid detector, he is trying to improve the data analysis pipeline at the Large Hadron Collider. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to engineering students with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.

Tags: APhMS honors Henry Ford II Scholar Award Oskar Painter Sarang Mittal Maria Spiropulu

04-28-16

Applied Physics senior Paul Dieterle has been selected by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation to receive a 2016 Hertz Fellowship. The fellows are chosen for their intellect, their ingenuity, and their potential to bring meaningful improvement to society.  At Caltech, Paul has worked and studied under the guidance of Engineering and Applied Science Professors Painter and Schwab. His research focuses on the physics of superconducting quantum circuits, photon-phonon interactions, and many-body interactions. In the long term, he says, he aims to "construct integrated quantum systems to explore both fundamental and application-oriented physics." [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS honors Oskar Painter Keith Schwab Paul Dieterle

10-20-15

Dive into the thinking of several Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM) researchers including Oskar J. Painter, John G Braun Professor of Applied Physics and Fletcher Jones Foundation Co-Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute, to learn more about the frontiers of quantum science, the role IQIM plays in exploring that frontier, and the question oft thought but rarely spoken: Why should we care? [E&S article]

Tags: APhMS research highlights Oskar Painter

08-07-13

Oskar J. Painter, Professor of Applied Physics, and colleagues have produced squeezed light using a silicon micromechanical system. "This system should enable a new set of precision microsensors capable of beating standard limits set by quantum mechanics," says Professor Painter. "Our experiment brings together, in a tiny microchip package, many aspects of work that has been done in quantum optics and precision measurement over the last 40 years." [Caltech Release]

Tags: APhMS energy research highlights Oskar Painter

07-11-13

Founding Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) Board member Professor Nai-Chang Yeh, and KNI Board member Professor Keith Schwab have been appointed to serve as the newly endowed Fletcher Jones Foundation co-directors of the KNI for a 3 year term. "The KNI is a thriving organization serving many researchers on (and off) campus, and I look forward to the energy and creativity that Nai-Chang and Keith will bring to the continued evolution of the KNI as a preeminent organization propelling nanoscience forward in diverse application areas ranging from medical engineering to nanophotonics," says Chair Ares Rosakis. Professors Yeh and Schwab follow in the footsteps of Professors Michael Roukes and Oskar Painter, who have finished a productive tenure in the position as co-directors and are thanked for their tenacity, vision, and leadership. [Caltech Announcement] 

Tags: APhMS Michael Roukes Oskar Painter Keith Schwab Nai-Chang Yeh

06-17-13

The research of Oskar J. Painter, Professor of Applied Physics, and his student Amir Safavi-Naeini is featured in an animated videos by Jorge Cham of PhD Comics.  The video is called A Quantum Experiment and is about cooling an oscillator to its ground state. Read Jorge's comments about the project in his post on the IQIM blog. [watch the video] [Caltech release about the research]

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Tags: APhMS energy research highlights Oskar Painter Amir Safavi-Naeini