A Second Quantum Revolution: Harnessing Quantum Technology for the Future
A Conversation With Thomas Rosenbaum
Date: Thursday, April 10
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall
This event is free and open to the public with a general admission ticket.
Caltech President Thomas Rosenbaum is a pioneering physicist and expert in the promising field of quantum physics.
Before his appointment as the ninth president of the California Institute of Technology in 2014, Rosenbaum served as vice president for research and for Argonne National Laboratory as well as provost at the University of Chicago. He has conducted research at Bell Laboratories, IBM Watson Research Center and the University of Chicago.
Rosenbaum, also the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and Professor of Physics at Caltech, has focused his research on the quantum mechanical nature of materials. This field of physics studies electronic, magnetic and optical materials at the atomic level, which are best observed at temperatures near absolute zero.
As a field of study, quantum physics traces its roots to the late 1800s and early 1900s from a series of atomic experiments that didn’t make sense in the context of classical physics. From living cells to black holes, nature is built on quantum physics, which is the study of the fundamental building blocks of matter and energy.
Individually and collectively, atoms and subatomic particles obey the rules of quantum physics — behaving far differently than objects at the scale of humans’ everyday perception. And harnessing the power of quantum physics has given rise to new technologies — both for applications used today in everything from semiconductor chips and lasers as well as future products centering around the development of quantum computing.
During Rosenbaum’s impressive academic career, he also has mentored more than 40 PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, including current Purdue physics and astronomy professor Arnab Banerjee when he was pursuing his master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Chicago more than a decade ago.
Rosenbaum is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves as current board chair of the Society for Science, and competed in the organization’s Science Talent Search program during the early 1970s.
He received his bachelor’s degree in physics with honors from Harvard University and a master’s degree and PhD in physics from Princeton University.
