Fermilab Arts & Lectures Series: Quantum Engineering for Next-Generation Technologies

• Fermilab Ramsey Auditorium
• Dr. David Awschalom, University of Chicago
• Tickets: $7
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Computers and electronics are looking more and more like the dreamed-up technologies from Star Trek, but what are the limits to our current approach? Today’s information technology is based on classical electronics: using the fact that electrons have charge to move them through circuits, and storing information primarily in magnetic disks. This lecture will focus on the remarkable development of a new generation of quantum technologies — an area of research at the border between science and engineering that could change the way we think about information itself. The emerging field of quantum engineering offers the promise of fundamentally new information technologies based on single atoms, where quantum physics – and its exotic properties including entanglement and teleportation – determines their behavior. Professor Awschalom will discuss the creation of prototype devices based on the quantum properties of emerging materials, as well as future applications ranging from powerful quantum computers and atomic memories to tamper-proof encrypted communication, molecular-level imaging, and precision sensing.

David Awschalom is the Liew Family Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, and a Senior Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Before arriving in Chicago, he was the Director of the California NanoSystems Institute and Professor of Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California – Santa Barbara. He works in the emerging fields of spintronics and quantum information engineering, where his students develop new methods to explore and control the quantum states of individual electrons and nuclei. Dr. Awschalom is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the European Academy of Sciences.