The last 40 years has been a revolutionary time for atomic, molecular, and optical physics. During that time there have been a number of major breakthroughs and experiments that have developed an increasing level of control over atoms and molecules, leading to fantastic scientific tools such as extremely sensitive clocks, Bose-Einstein Condensation, and quantum computing that allow us to study the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. In this talk, Matthew Wright will introduce many of these concepts and discuss his teams' own research projects. Professor Wright and his team are working toward using frequency-chirped laser light on the nanosecond time scale to control atomic excitation and collisions in complex systems with cold atoms. Toward this end, they have developed a novel laser system that generates rapid arbitrarily frequency chirped lasers.
Matthew Wright is the chair of the physics department at Adelphi University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and obtained his undergraduate physics degree from Westminster College (PA). Before becoming a professor, Wright held physics research appointments at Harvard University and Innsbruck University. He was also a management consultant at Princeton Consultants for 3 years focusing on logistics. In addition to research interests in atomic physics, he continues to focus on building a student-first community which has lead to mentoring 40 students in physics research and 15 op-eds on building community in higher education.