Department Announces Raman Prize and Ramdas Award
By William Fornes
The Purdue University Department of Physics and Astronomy has announced a pair of newly established honors for two of its highest-achieving students. The Ramdas Award recognizes an exceptional senior undergraduate student who has completed a unique research project; it includes a $1,000 award. The Raman Prize recognizes a PhD student or recent alumni for his or her outstanding dissertation; it includes a $5,000 award. Both recognitions are made possible through the generosity of Anant K. Ramdas, the Lark-Horovitz Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy (emeritus), and his wife, Vasanti Ramdas. The Ramdas Award for 2019 was presented to AJ Wildridge, and the Raman Prize for 2019 was presented to Matthew Eiles.
Ramdas Award for 2019 — AJ Wildridge
Wildridge joined Andreas Jung's high energy physics research group as a sophomore in 2017 and earned his bachelor’s degree in May 2019. His research project involved creating a quantum algorithm for a D-Wave quantum computer in order to better examine aspects of particle collisions in the Compact Muon Solenoid, or CMS, detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Jung, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, recalls that Wildridge's contributions "were absolutely vital and enabled us to formulate the problem in the form required by the quantum processing unit (QPU), such that we can execute it." Wildridge joined the department as a graduate student in August.
Raman Prize for 2019 — Matthew Eiles
Eiles earned his PhD in 2018 under Chris Greene, the Albert W. Overhauser Distinguished Professor of Physics. Eiles' dissertation, "Highly Excited States of Small Molecules and Atomic Negative Ions," examines two major lines of research in atomic, molecular and optical (AMO) physics: two-electron systems and Rydberg molecules, and his insights have resulted in seven publications to date. He received a highly competitive Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, and he was recently named a finalist for the 2019 DAMOP/APS Deborah Jin Thesis Award in AMO Physics. Eiles is currently a guest scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany.