Marlan Orvil Scully (born August 3, 1939) is an American physicist best known for his work in theoretical quantum optics. He is a professor at
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
and
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
. Additionally, in 2012 he developed a lab at the
Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative
The Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative is a science research facility. It is the first, and cornerstone, facility of a 21-acre discovery complex that is expected to evolve into the Central Texas Technology and Research Park. Originally a ...
in
Waco, Texas
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
.
He has authored over 700 scientific articles, as well as standard textbooks such as ''Laser Physics'' (with
W. Lamb and M. Sargent) and “Quantum Optics” (with
M. S. Zubairy).
Education
Scully was born in
Casper, Wyoming, where he attended public schools including
Casper College, and finished his undergraduate studies at the
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...
and
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received his PhD under the guidance of
Willis Lamb
Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (; July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum." The Nobel Committee that year awarded hal ...
at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
in 1965.
Career
After completing his graduate work at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, Scully became an instructor at Yale and then proceeded to become an assistant professor at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
, where he received early promotion to associate professor and moved to the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
to become professor before age 30. While there, he worked with
Willis Lamb
Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (; July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum." The Nobel Committee that year awarded hal ...
, Peter Franken, and others to build the Optical Sciences Center there. In 1980, he took a joint position between the
Max Planck Institute
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
für Quantenoptik and the
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
as distinguished professor. In 1992, he moved to Texas A&M, where he is now Burgess Distinguished Professor of Physics, holds the TEES Distinguished Research chair, and is director of the
Center for Theoretical Physics and the Institute for Quantum Studies. In 2003, he was appointed visiting professor at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
. In 2005, he accepted a joint professional appointment between Texas A&M and Princeton Universities.
The Scully-Lamb quantum theory of the laser was the first theoretical treatment which yielded the laser photon statistics, the laser linewidth, and all higher order photon correlations. It was later extended to explain behavior of the single photon maser. Most recently, Scully and coworkers have shown that the laser master equation analysis also provides a good quantitative description of fluctuations in the
Bose–Einstein condensate
In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (−273.15 °C or −459.6 ...
.
The foundation of quantum mechanics is another area which Scully has made pioneering contributions. Aharonov and
Zubairy in their 2005 Science article on "Time and the Quantum" describe one facet of his work as follows:
"The quantum eraser effect of Scully and Drühl dramatically underscores the difference between our classical conceptions of time and how quantum processes can unfold in time. Such eyebrow-raising features of time in quantum mechanics have been.. . described ‘as one of the most intriguing effects in quantum mechanics’.. . The quantum eraser concept has been studied and extended in many different experiments and scenarios, for example, the entanglement quantum eraser, the kaon
KAON (Karlsruhe ontology) is an ontology infrastructure developed by the University of Karlsruhe and the Research Center for Information Technologies in Karlsruhe.
Its first incarnation was developed in 2002 and supported an enhanced version of ...
quantum eraser, and the use of quantum eraser entanglement to improve microscopic resolution."
A rather unorthodox feature of his career is his strong combination of theoretical and experimental science. For example, Scully and colleagues were the first to make lasers oscillate without population inversion and have extended the coherent
Raman spectroscopy techniques to detect
anthrax type
endospores
An endospore is a dormancy, dormant, tough, and non-reproductive structure produced by some bacteria in the phylum Bacillota. The name "endospore" is suggestive of a spore or seed-like form (''endo'' means 'within'), but it is not a true spore ...
. In addition, Scully is long time cattle rancher known for his research in the United States and abroad, e.g., Mongolia, into beef cattle production. This unlikely combination of activities and interests has resulted in his being dubbed the "quantum cowboy." In addition to his seven US Patents in laser physics, he holds a US Patent (5,198,222) titled "Time Release Bolus," which is a device for slowly delivering medicine or nutrients into the stomach of a cow.
Recognition
Scully is a member of the
National Academy of Sciences, the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
, the
Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences.
The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...
, and the
Max Planck Society. He has also received numerous awards including the Adolph E. Lomb Medal of the
OSA in 1970, the
Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1990, the
Charles Hard Townes Award of the OSA in 1998, the Quantum Electronics Award of
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
in 2003, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Distinguished Faculty Prize, the APS
Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in 2005, and has been appointed to a Harvard Loeb Lectureship.
In 2011, Scully was honored with the Herbert Walther Award and in 2012 with the Frederic Ives Medal of the OSA. In December 2016, he has been elected as a Foreign Member Of
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...
. In 2021, he was elected as a foreign member of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...
with a Chinese name 司嘉理 ().
Life
His wife Judith Bailey Scully and he have three sons: James, an American Airline captain; Robert, a writer and Caterpillar diesel mechanic; and Steven, an electrical engineer with Dallas Semiconductor. Rob (with an introduction by his father) wrote a book entitled “The Demon and the Quantum: From the Pythagorean Mystics to Maxwell's Demon and Quantum Mystery” which was published by Wiley-VCH in October 2007. The book is directed toward the layperson as well as the professional physicist and examines the connection between Maxwell's Demon and the role of the observer and quantum eraser.Marlan is a Christian.
Bibliography
Articles
*
Notes
External links
Faculty page at Princeton University(This photograph taken at
''Lasers'' '92 includes, right to left, Marlan Scully,
Willis E. Lamb
Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (; July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum." The Nobel Committee that year awarded hal ...
,
John L. Hall
John Lewis "Jan" Hall (born August 21, 1934) is an American physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics. He shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Theodor W. Hänsch and Roy Glauber for his work in precision spectroscopy.
Biography
Born ...
, and
F. J. Duarte)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scully, Marlan O.
1939 births
Living people
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni
University of Wyoming alumni
Yale University alumni
21st-century American physicists
Experimental physicists
Optical physicists
Harvard University staff
Members of Academia Europaea
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Princeton University faculty
Texas A&M University faculty
Theoretical physicists
Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences