Two Physicists Named Sloan Fellows

Xie Chen, assistant professor of theoretical physics, and Manuel Endres, assistant professor of physics, have been named recipients of 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships. They are among 126 early career scholars honored this year by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Each will receive $60,000 to further their research.

Chen's research is at the intersection of condensed matter physics and quantum information.  Condensed matter physics studies the large-scale properties of materials starting from their miniscule components—particles such as electrons and atoms. Quantum information science investigates how quantum mechanical systems transmit information and perform computation. Chen's work examines how particles interact at the quantum level and how such interactions can enable new ways to store, manipulate, and transmit information.

"It is a great honor to receive the Sloan Fellowship," says Chen. "I am very excited and appreciative of the support to our effort in addressing fundamental questions and pursuing open-ended research directions, which can be risky but also highly rewarding scientifically."

Endres studies quantum many-body systems, which are large collections of interacting quantum particles. His experiments aim to control such ensembles, which will be essential for experimentally studying some of the outstanding mysteries of many-body systems and for developing new quantum technologies, including quantum-enhanced computing, simulation, and precision measurements.

"I am honored to receive a Sloan Fellowship," says Endres. "Physics is a 'team sport' and, therefore, I am most thankful to my colleagues who have worked with me in the past years. The Sloan Fellowship will help me and my group explore new avenues for controlling quantum many-body systems."

A full list of the 2017 Fellows is available at the Sloan Foundation website at https://sloan.org/fellowships/2017-Fellows.