curriculum vitae

PhD

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

• Physics (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)
• Thesis - "Integrated Technologies and Techniques for Trapped Ion Array Architectures"
  • Available on DSpace@MIT

B.S.

The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

• Honors Physics
• Dean's Scholars Program
• Certificate in Statistics and Scientific Computation
• Dean's Honored Graduate

Postdoctoral Research Associate

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado

• Building an experiment for quantum networking research using trapped atomic ions in surface electrode traps with integrated fiber Fabry–Pérot cavities.

Research Assistant

MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts

• Demonstrated the first trapping of ions using only (DC) voltages generated on-chip. Measured the voltage noise in these circuits using trapped-ions and compared results with bench measurements.
• Constructed a new experiment in the ion lab for trapping calcium atoms for testing future rounds of integrated electronics chips. Led an effort to implement a new Python-based software and hardware control system across all of the experiments in the ion-trapping lab.
• Developed ion traps and voltage sources for rapid transport, splitting and merging of chains of trapped ions. Mentored a student to help develop voltage waveforms for doing these operations in the presence of low-pass filters.
• Co-led an experiment to develop a trapped ion atomic clock using a fiber-based stimulated Brillouin scattering laser, operating in a new regime of stability for fiber lasers.
• Co-led the experimental effort to address a trapped ion using a trap with integrated photonics at multiple wavelengths. Engineered a mounting system for attaching fiber-optic arrays to the edge of ion trap chips. Characterized photoelectric charging due to ionization lasers and improved the finite-element simulations of electrostatic potentials.
• Helped to develop a general method for determining the technical noise contribution to heating rates in ion traps.
• Investigated surface preparation methods for reducing motional decoherence of trapped ions. Employed in situ plasma cleaning capability with an ex situ ion mill to determine the effects of surface reconstruction and hydrocarbon removal on the heating rate of trapped ions. Compared milling results with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis.

Research Assistant

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

• Wrote FPGA firmware for an ADC/DAC board to control feedback systems. Addressed high-resolution analog controllers using the maximum possible bandwidth to minimize the frequency noise on lasers locked with PID loops. Created a system of flexible IIR filter stages that can be dynamically switched to obtain an ad hoc balance between the speed of the loop and the complexity of the transfer function.
• Designed and tested a custom circuit for Pound-Drever-Hall locks on lasers. Assembled analog control boards that have been used for such various things as modulating a high-finesse laser lock and driving fixed-frequency AOMs.
• Helped to maintain web-enabled software for laboratory control. Developed front ends written in Javascript and Python to control low-level device function and communicate with a host server for the main experiment.

Research Assistant

The University of Texas at Austin

• Constructed a lock-in amplifier for Auger spectroscopy. Developed LabVIEW software for controlling the high-voltage bias field and performing the signal acquisition and processing.
• Designed and constructed a digital delay generator with ~1 ns precision. Replicated the function of a discontinued IC with a custom circuit and created a means for USB control with an Arduino.
• Participated in an experiment to probe the surface of amorphous water with a helium beam. Used a pulsed beam of helium incident on a thin foil with a few layers of adsorbed water, which could be brought quickly into the amorphous state using a wet liquid nitrogen cooling stage.

G.H.O.S.T.

• 👻

little-locker

• 🔒

• NRC Postdoctroal Research Associateship

• Praecis Presidential Graduate Fellowship
• Dean's Honored Graduate

• Eva Stevenson Woods Unrestricted Endowed Presidential Scholarship

• Kevin E. Underhill Memorial Endowed Presidential Scholarship

• National Merit Scholarship