Campbell Research Group

Gretchen Campbell, a JQI Fellow and NIST Physicist, has been selected as a 2015 Finalist for a Service to America Medal. The highly respected honor highlights dedicated federal workers who have made significant contributions to our country. According to the award website, "The Sammies, known as the “Oscars” of government service, are a highly respected honor with a vigorous selection process. Named for the Partnership for Public Service’s late founder who was inspired by President Kennedy’s call to serve in 1963, these awards align with his vision of a dynamic and innovative federal workforce that meets the needs of the American people."
Campbell is nominated in the Call to Service category and is cited as having "Advanced the emerging field of physics known as atomtronics, paving the way for a new generation of technologies much like electronics has transformed our society today."

Three Fellows of the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a joint research partnership between the University of Maryland (UMD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have won major awards from the American Physical Society, the nation’s largest professional organization of physicists. The scientists are Ian Spielman and Gretchen Campbell of NIST, and Christopher Monroe of UMD, each honored in a different category.

In certain exotic situations, a collection of atoms can transition to a superfluid state, flouting the normal rules of liquid behavior. Unlike a normal, viscous fluid, the atoms in a superfluid flow unhindered by friction.

Steve's paper "Interferometric measurement of the current-phase relationship of a superfluid weak link" was published in Physical Review X on September 22. The paper can be found here. A description of the paper can be found here.

Fred's paper "Resistive Flow in a Weakly Interacting Bose-Einstein Condensate" has been published in Physical Review Letters on July 24th. The paper can be found here.

Release from NIST Tech Beat, April 15, 2014

Three National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers were among those honored April 14, 2014, at a White House reception as winners of Presidential Early Career Awards. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Steve's paper "Hysteresis in a quantized superfluid ‘atomtronic’ circuit" was published in Nature on February 13th. The paper can be found here.  A News & Views about the paper writtin by Matt Davis and Kris Helmerson can be found here.

A popular account of the article can be found at the JQI website.  

Atomtronics is an emerging technology whereby physicists use ensembles of atoms to build analogs to electronic circuit elements. Modern electronics relies on utilizing the charge properties of the electron. Using lasers and magnetic fields, atomic systems can be engineered to have behavior analogous to that of electrons, making them an exciting platform for studying and generating alternatives to charge-based electronics.

On Friday, January 31st, the Strontium lab succesfully created a Bose-Einstein Condensate using 86Sr.

http://jqi.umd.edu/news/quantum-bit/2014/02/04/10-and-counting-jqis-ultracold-quantum-gases

The 2013 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers were announced on Monday, December 23rd. JQI Fellow and NIST scientist Gretchen Campbell was among the honorees. Campbell currently runs two experiments on ultracold atoms. One currently focuses on using a toroidal shaped Bose-Einstein condensate to build atomic analogs to electron-based superconducting circuits--so-called atomtronics.