Jonathan P. Dowling (3 April 1955 – 5 June 2020) was an Irish-American researcher and professor in theoretical physics, known for his work on

quantum technology Quantum technology is an emerging field of physics and engineering, encompassing technologies that rely on the properties of quantum mechanics, especially quantum entanglement, quantum superposition, and quantum tunneling. Quantum computing, se ...

, particularly for exploiting

quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of ...

(in the form of a

NOON state In quantum optics, a NOON state or N00N state is a quantum-mechanical many-body Quantum entanglement, entangled state: : , \psi_\text \rangle = \frac, \, which represents a superposition of ''N'' particles in mode ''a'' with zero particles in ...

) for applications to

quantum metrology Quantum metrology is the study of making high-resolution and highly sensitive measurements of physical parameters using quantum theory to describe the physical systems, particularly exploiting quantum entanglement and quantum squeezing. This fie ...

, quantum sensing, and

quantum imaging Quantum imaging is a new sub-field of quantum optics that exploits quantum correlations such as quantum entanglement of the electromagnetic field in order to image objects with a resolution or other imaging criteria that is beyond what is possible ...

Career

Dowling obtained a PhD in 1988 from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked at the

Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics The Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (abbreviation: MPQ; german: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik) is a part of the Max Planck Society which operates 87 research facilities in Germany. The institute is located in Garching, Germany, w ...

, the

United States Army Aviation and Missile Command The United States Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) develops, acquires, fields and sustains aviation, missile and unmanned aerial vehicles. AMCOM is primarily responsible for lifecycle management of army missile, helicopter, unmanned gro ...

, the NASA

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

, and the

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

. Dowling was one of the founders of the US Government program in quantum computing and quantum cryptography. Dowling was the co-director of the Horace Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics and a Hearne chair in Theoretical Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, both at

Research

Dowling authored scientific publications in

quantum electrodynamics In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and spec ...

quantum optics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics dealing with how individual quanta of light, known as photons, interact with atoms and molecules. It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons. Photons have b ...

, and

. At the time of his death, his publications had been cited over 20,200 times, with a

Hirsch index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 64. Dowling published papers are on the topics of

Linear optical quantum computing Linear optical quantum computing or linear optics quantum computation (LOQC) is a paradigm of quantum computation, allowing (under certain conditions, described below) universal quantum computation. LOQC uses photons as information carriers, main ...

quantum lithography Quantum lithography is a type of photolithography, which exploits non-classical properties of the photons, such as quantum entanglement, in order to achieve superior performance over ordinary classical lithography. Quantum lithography is closely ...

optical switching An optical transistor, also known as an optical switch or a light valve, is a device that switches or amplifies optical signals. Light occurring on an optical transistor's input changes the intensity of light emitted from the transistor's output wh ...

photonic crystals A photonic crystal is an optical nanostructure in which the refractive index changes periodically. This affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of natural crystals gives rise to X-ray diffraction and that the atomi ...

, and the photonic band-edge laser. Dowling also researched the quantum theory of atomic

spontaneous emission Spontaneous emission is the process in which a quantum mechanical system (such as a molecule, an atom or a subatomic particle) transits from an excited energy state to a lower energy state (e.g., its ground state) and emits a quantized amount of ...

and other quantum electrodynamics effects in optical micro-cavities and photonic crystals, as well as optical

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 ...

, and quantum sensing.

Awards and recognition

* Fellow,

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

*Fellow,

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

*Fellow,

The Optical Society Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA) and before that as the Optical Society of America) is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals and organizes conference ...

*Willis Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics, 2002 *LSU Foundation Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award, 2012 *Undergraduate Physics & Astronomy Majors Teaching Award, 2013 *Department of Physics and Astronomy Graduate Faculty Teaching Award in 2017

Publications

Dowling is the author of a

popular science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

book, "Schrödinger's Killer App – Race to Build the World's First Quantum Computer". A story in this book about early motivations for funding

by the United States military was illustrated by

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal ''Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal'' (''SMBC'') is a webcomic by Zach Weinersmith. The gag-a-day comic features few recurring characters or storylines, and has no set format; some strips may be a single panel, while others may go on for ten pan ...

following his death. Additionally, this book formulated what is known as the Dowling-Neven Law, regarding the classical cost of simulating quantum computers growing doubly exponentially in time, given that the number of qubits on current quantum computers is currently growing exponentially with time. The first book's sequel, "Schrödinger’s Web: Race to Build the Quantum Internet", has been released posthumously. Dowling co-authored a 2003 paper which predicted a boom in quantum technologies."Quantum technology: the second quantum revolution," by Jonathan P. Dowling & Gerard J. Milburn; Published 15 August 2003; DOI:10.1098/rsta.2003.122

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References

External links

Dowling's home page
at LSU.
Dowling's group page
at LSU. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dowling, Jonathan Quantum physicists 21st-century American physicists Irish physicists Louisiana State University faculty Theoretical physicists 1955 births 2020 deaths Quantum information scientists