Brian Leeds DeMarco is a physicist and Professor of Physics at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. In 2005 he placed first in the

quantum physics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...

portion of the "Amazing Light" competition honoring

Charles Townes Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...

, winner of the 1964

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

. DeMarco is currently conducting experiments in quantum simulation. DeMarco earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the

State University of New York at Geneseo The State University of New York College at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo State College or, colloquially, "Geneseo") is a public liberal arts college in Geneseo, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The colle ...

in 1996. He then earned a PhD in physics from the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

in 2001. As a graduate student, DeMarco worked with

Deborah S. Jin Deborah Shiu-lan Jin (; November 15, 1968 – September 15, 2016) was an American physicist and fellow with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); Professor Adjunct, Department of Physics at the University of Colorado; and a ...

to create the first true

Fermionic condensate A fermionic condensate or Fermi–Dirac condensate is a superfluid phase formed by fermionic particles at low temperatures. It is closely related to the Bose–Einstein condensate, a superfluid phase formed by bosonic atoms under similar condit ...

. The journal ''Science'' selected this achievement as one of the top ten scientific discoveries of 1999. From 2001–2003, DeMarco was a postdoctoral research fellow at the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

(

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

), working on

quantum computing Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...

experiments with trapped atomic ions. He joined the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois in 2003.

Education

* Vestal Senior High School, Vestal NY Class of 1992 *

SUNY Geneseo The State University of New York College at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo State College or, colloquially, "Geneseo") is a public liberal arts college in Geneseo, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The colle ...

, Geneseo, NY Class of 1996 *

, Boulder, Colorado Ph.D. in Physics 2001

Honors and awards

*Breakthrough of the Year, 1999 - Science magazine - Science 286, 2239-2243 (1999) *

JILA JILA, formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, is a physical science research institute in the United States. JILA is located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. JILA was founded in 1962 as a joint institute of ...

Scientific Achievement Award, 2000 *American Physical Society DAMOP Dissertation Award, 2002 *Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award, 2004 *National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2004 *1st Place, "Quantum Physics" category, Amazing Light: Visions for Discovery, 2005 *

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., then-president and chief executive officer of General Motors. The Sloan Foundation makes grants to support or ...

Research Fellowship, 2006 *

Beckman Fellow A Beckman Fellow receives funding, usually via an intermediary institution, from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, founded by Arnold Orville Beckman and his wife Mabel. The Foundation supports programs at several institutions to encourage re ...

, 2006-2007 *Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2015 (search on year=2015 and institution=University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Publications

* * * * *

References

External links

DeMarco home pageAmazing Light CompetitionPhysics Illinois News
21st-century American physicists Science teachers University of Colorado alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) State University of New York at Geneseo alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society {{US-physicist-stub