award

The researchers are part of a team that won the quantum category at the university’s Invention of the Year Awards for developing a new method to count particles of light—known as photons—without destroying them.

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.

A big part of research is working with other scientists. As an undergraduate and JQI graduate student at the University of Maryland, Jacob Bringewatt has put in the work knocking on doors and connecting with professors, which has allowed him to explore a broad range of research projects and earned him accolades along the way.

JQI graduate student Jacob Bringewatt has received the Board of Visitors Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences at UMD. The award acknowledges scholarly and research excellence of a graduate student in the college and comes with a $5,000 prize.

JQI Fellow Vladimir Manucharyan has received a 2019 Google Faculty Research Award. It is the second consecutive year that Manucharyan, who is also an Associate Professor of Physics at UMD, has earned the honor. This year’s award will continue to support research by Manucharyan and his team into quantum computing hardware based on superconducting circuits. They are pursuing the development of special quantum bits—called fluxonium qubits—for use in a new generation of computers.

JQI researchers are part of two teams that have received Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) awards from the Department of Defense (DoD). DoD awards these competitive grants annually to promote multidisciplinary work by teams spanning several universities. MURI awards focus on topics that are important to DoD and that may promote development of new technologies.

Eliot Fenton, UMD physics major, was among those recognized as a 2018 Maryland ‘Undergraduate Researcher of the Year.’ This award is eligible for exemplary seniors who have been nominated by their faculty advisors.  Fenton earned this award for his wide-ranging experimental physics research accomplishments.

Pablo Solano, a recent graduate student with JQI Fellow and UMD physics professor Luis Orozco, has been awarded the Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Prize. According to the official award description, the prize recognizes “original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to its discipline.” The prize is given in four broad disciplinary areas and comes with an honorarium.

Maissam Barkeshli, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Maryland and fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute, has been awarded a 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship.

JQI Fellow Vladimir Manucharyan has recently received the 2017 Young Faculty Award (YFA) from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to support his research on topological superconductivity. According to DARPA, the YFA program seeks to “identify and engage rising research stars in junior faculty positions at U.S. academic institutions”. During the 2-year support period, DARPA grants awardees with mentoring and financial support.