Christopher Monroe

After receiving his undergraduate degree from MIT in 1987, Monroe joined Carl Wieman's research group at the University of Colorado in the early days of laser cooling and trapping of atoms. With Wieman and postdoctoral researcher Eric Cornell, Monroe contributed to the path for cooling a gas of atoms to the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition.{{cite journal | last1=Monroe | first1=C. | last2=Swann | first2=W. | last3=Robinson | first3=H. | last4=Wieman | first4=C. | title=Very cold trapped atoms in a vapor cell | journal=Physical Review Letters | publisher=American Physical Society (APS) | volume=65 | issue=13 | date=1990-09-24 | issn=0031-9007 | doi=10.1103/physrevlett.65.1571 | pages=1571–1574| pmid=10042304 | bibcode=1990PhRvL..65.1571M | url=https://zenodo.org/record/1233885 }} He obtained his PhD under Wieman in 1992 (Wieman and Cornell succeeded in the quest in 1995, and were awarded the Nobel Prize for this work in 2001).

From 1992 to 2000, Monroe worked in the Ion Storage Group of David Wineland at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, CO, where he was awarded a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship from 1992-1994, and held a staff position in the same group from 1994-2000. With Wineland, Monroe led the research team that demonstrated the first quantum logic gate in 1995 and for the first time entangled multiple qubits,{{cite journal | last1=Monroe | first1=C. | last2=Meekhof | first2=D. M. | last3=King | first3=B. E. | last4=Itano | first4=W. M. | last5=Wineland | first5=D. J. | title=Demonstration of a Fundamental Quantum Logic Gate | journal=Physical Review Letters | publisher=American Physical Society (APS) | volume=75 | issue=25 | date=1995-12-18 | issn=0031-9007 | doi=10.1103/physrevlett.75.4714 | pages=4714–4717| pmid=10059979 | bibcode=1995PhRvL..75.4714M |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal | last1=Turchette | first1=Q. A. | last2=Wood | first2=C. S. | last3=King | first3=B. E. | last4=Myatt | first4=C. J. | last5=Leibfried | first5=D. | last6=Itano | first6=W. M. | last7=Monroe | first7=C. | last8=Wineland | first8=D. J. | title=Deterministic Entanglement of Two Trapped Ions | journal=Physical Review Letters | volume=81 | issue=17 | date=1998-10-26 | issn=0031-9007 | doi=10.1103/physrevlett.81.3631 | pages=3631–3634| arxiv=quant-ph/9806012 | bibcode=1998PhRvL..81.3631T | s2cid=49338133 }}{{cite journal | last1=Sackett | first1=C. A. | last2=Kielpinski | first2=D. | last3=King | first3=B. E. | last4=Langer | first4=C. | last5=Meyer | first5=V. | last6=Myatt | first6=C. J. | last7=Rowe | first7=M. | last8=Turchette | first8=Q. A. | last9=Itano | first9=W. M. | last10=Wineland | first10=D. J. | last11=Monroe | first11=C. |display-authors=5| title=Experimental entanglement of four particles | journal=Nature | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=404 | issue=6775 | year=2000 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/35005011 | pages=256–259| pmid=10749201 | bibcode=2000Natur.404..256S | s2cid=2137148 }} and exploited the use of trapped atomic ions for applications in quantum control and the new field of quantum information science.

In 2000, Monroe initiated a research group at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he showed how qubit memories could be linked to single photons for quantum networking.{{cite journal | last1=Blinov | first1=B. B. | last2=Moehring | first2=D. L. | last3=Duan | first3=L.- M. | last4=Monroe | first4=C. | title=Observation of entanglement between a single trapped atom and a single photon | journal=Nature | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=428 | issue=6979 | year=2004 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/nature02377 | pages=153–157| pmid=15014494 | bibcode=2004Natur.428..153B | hdl=2027.42/62924 | s2cid=4314514 | hdl-access=free }} There he also demonstrated the first ion trap integrated on a semiconductor chip.{{cite journal | last1=Stick | first1=D. | last2=Hensinger | first2=W. K. | last3=Olmschenk | first3=S. | last4=Madsen | first4=M. J. | last5=Schwab | first5=K. | last6=Monroe | first6=C. | title=Ion trap in a semiconductor chip | journal=Nature Physics | volume=2 | issue=1 | year=2006 | issn=1745-2473 | arxiv=quant-ph/0601052 |doi=10.1038/nphys171 | pages=36–39| bibcode=2006NatPh...2...36S | doi-access=free }} With Wineland, Monroe proposed a scalable quantum computer architecture based on shuttling atomic ions through complex ion trap chips.{{cite journal | last1=Kielpinski | first1=D. | last2=Monroe | first2=C. | last3=Wineland | first3=D. J. | title=Architecture for a large-scale ion-trap quantum computer | journal=Nature | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=417 | issue=6890 | year=2002 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/nature00784 | pages=709–711| pmid=12066177 | bibcode=2002Natur.417..709K | hdl=2027.42/62880 | s2cid=4347109 | hdl-access=free }} In 2006, Monroe became director of the FOCUS Center at the University of Michigan, a NSF Physics Frontier Center in the area of ultrafast optical science.

In 2007, Monroe became the Bice Zorn Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland and a Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). There, Monroe's group produced quantum entanglement between two widely separated atoms,{{cite journal | last1=Moehring | first1=D. L. | last2=Maunz | first2=P. | last3=Olmschenk | first3=S. | last4=Younge | first4=K. C. | last5=Matsukevich | first5=D. N. | last6=Duan | first6=L.-M. | last7=Monroe | first7=C. | title=Entanglement of single-atom quantum bits at a distance | journal=Nature | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=449 | issue=7158 | year=2007 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/nature06118 | pages=68–71| pmid=17805290 | bibcode=2007Natur.449...68M | hdl=2027.42/62780 | s2cid=19624141 | hdl-access=free }} and were the first to teleport quantum information between matter separated over distance.{{cite journal | last1=Olmschenk | first1=S. | last2=Matsukevich | first2=D. N. | last3=Maunz | first3=P. | last4=Hayes | first4=D. | last5=Duan | first5=L.-M. | last6=Monroe | first6=C. | title=Quantum Teleportation Between Distant Matter Qubits | journal=Science | volume=323 | issue=5913 | date=2009-01-23 | issn=0036-8075 | doi=10.1126/science.1167209 | pages=486–489| pmid=19164744 | arxiv=0907.5240 | bibcode=2009Sci...323..486O | hdl=2027.42/63641 | s2cid=206516918 | hdl-access=free }} They exploited this resource for a number of quantum communication protocols{{cite journal | last1=Pironio | first1=S. | last2=Acín | first2=A. | last3=Massar | first3=S. | last4=de la Giroday | first4=A. Boyer | last5=Matsukevich | first5=D. N. | last6=Maunz | first6=P. | last7=Olmschenk | first7=S. | last8=Hayes | first8=D. | last9=Luo | first9=L. | last10=Manning | first10=T. A. | last11=Monroe | first11=C. |display-authors=5| title=Random numbers certified by Bell's theorem | journal=Nature | volume=464 | issue=7291 | year=2010 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/nature09008 | pages=1021–1024| pmid=20393558 | arxiv=0911.3427 | bibcode=2010Natur.464.1021P | s2cid=4300790 }} and for a new hybrid memory/photon quantum computer architecture.{{cite journal | last1=Monroe | first1=C. | last2=Raussendorf | first2=R. | last3=Ruthven | first3=A. | last4=Brown | first4=K. R. | last5=Maunz | first5=P. | last6=Duan | first6=L.-M. | last7=Kim | first7=J. | title=Large-scale modular quantum-computer architecture with atomic memory and photonic interconnects | journal=Physical Review A | volume=89 | issue=2 | date=2014-02-13 | issn=1050-2947 | doi=10.1103/physreva.89.022317 | page=022317|arxiv=1208.0391| bibcode=2014PhRvA..89b2317M | s2cid=14073633 }}

In recent years, his group pioneered the use of individual atoms as a quantum simulator, or a special purpose quantum computer that can probe complex many-body quantum phenomena such as frustration and magnetic ordering.{{cite journal |last1=Monroe |first1=C. |last2=Campbell |first2=W.C. |last3=Duan |first3=L. -M. |last4=Gong |first4=Z. -X. |last5=Gorshkov |first5=A. V. |last6=Hess |first6=P. |last7=Islam |first7=R. |last8=Kim |first8=K. |last9=Pagano |first9=G. |last10=Richerme |first10=P. |last11=Senko |first11=C. |last12=Yao |first12=N. Y. |display-authors=5 |date=2021-04-07|title=Programmable Quantum Simulations of Spin Systems with Trapped Ions |journal=Rev. Mod. Phys. |volume=93 |issue=2 |page=025001 |doi= 10.1103/RevModPhys.93.025001|arxiv=1912.07845 |bibcode=2021RvMP...93b5001M |s2cid=209386771 }} His laboratory controls and manipulates the largest collection of individual interacting qubits.

In 2015, Monroe co-founded the startup IonQ, Inc. with Jungsang Kim (Duke University), and until 2023 has served as chief scientist. From August 2018 to May 2019 he served as CEO. IonQ manufactures full stack quantum computers based on trapped atomic ion technology.

Monroe was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2016.{{citation|url=http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/may-3-2016-NAS-Election.html|title=National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected|department=News from the National Academy of Sciences|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|date=May 3, 2016|access-date=2016-05-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506052951/http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/may-3-2016-NAS-Election.html|archive-date=May 6, 2016|url-status=dead}}. In 2017-2018 he played an instrumental role in working with the National Photonics Initiative and U.S. Congress to craft the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act, {{cite journal |last1=Raymer |first1=Michael |last2=Monroe |first2=Chris |date=2019-02-22 |title=The US National Quantum Initiative |journal=Quantum Science and Technology |volume=4 |issue=2 |page=020504 |doi=10.1088/2058-9565/ab0441|bibcode=2019QS&T....4b0504R |doi-access=free }} endowing U.S. scientific agencies to coordinate research in quantum information science and technology, while standing up focused research centers throughout the country.

In 2021, Monroe became the Gilhuly Family Presidential Distinguished Professor at Duke University, in the Departments of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is the founding director of the Duke Quantum Center, an institute that designs, builds, and operates quantum computers.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://quantum.duke.edu/ Duke Quantum Center]
• [https://ece.duke.edu// Duke University Electrical and Computer Engineering Department]
• [https://physics.duke.edu// Duke University Physics Department]
• [http://www.iontrap.umd.edu/ University of Maryland Ion Trap Group]
• [http://jqi.umd.edu/ Joint Quantum Institute]
• [http://www.umdphysics.umd.edu/ University of Maryland Department of Physics]
• [https://ionq.com/ IONQ]

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Category:1965 births

Category:Living people

Category:American quantum physicists

Category:American optical physicists

Category:21st-century American physicists

Category:University of Maryland, College Park faculty

Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Category:University of Colorado alumni

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society

Category:Fellows of the Institute of Physics

Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:University of Michigan faculty

Category:American quantum information scientists

Category:Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers