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JQI Research Scientist Grégory Moille has received the Distinguished Research Scientist Prize from the College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland. The award comes with a $5,000 prize and celebrates his research excellence .

In her new lab, Alaina Green is making a quantum computer that is better at intentionally creating quantum errors that can be systematically studied.

Lasers are often misunderstood, according to chemical physicist and JQI Fellow Yu Liu. “People usually think of lasers as heating things up, but if you use the right frequency of lasers and target the right type of atoms, you can actually take energy away,” Liu says. This technique—laser cooling—is his specialty.

What Swarnav Banik’s does might just be the future of transportation. Since 2022, he’s been working on sensing technology for the next generation of autonomous vehicles. In his work, Banik develops next-generation sensors that use lidar—light detection and ranging—technology to help autonomous vehicles “see” objects on the road ahead and safely avoid them. He first worked as a senior photonics engineer at Aurora Innovation, a company that’s developing self-driving systems for semitrucks and other commercial vehicles; now he’s at Aeva, a Silicon Valley firm developing sensing and perception tools for driverless cars and industrial automation.

JQI Fellow Alexey Gorshkov is a finalist in the physical sciences and engineering category of the 2024 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. The annual awards acknowledge the accomplishments and future potential of scientists and engineers who are 42 years old or younger.

Jason Youm, a high school student who performed summer research with JQI Fellow Alexey Gorshkov in 2023, placed in the top dozen competitors in the physics and astronomy category at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

JQI Fellow Alexey Gorshkov has won the 2024 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award.

A team of JQI researchers and their colleagues have won in the quantum category of the UMD Invention of the Year Award. They are honored for developing a new method for counting particles of light—photons—without destroying them.

JQI alumnus Wes Campbell was elected vice chair of the American Physics Society (APS) Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics (DAMOP) executive committee.