Prize Recipient

Brian Odom
University of Chicago

"Measurement of the Electron g-Factor in a Sub-Kelvin Cylindrical Cavity.
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Brian Odom grew up in Houston, Texas. During high school he was a Houston delegate to the International Science and Engineering Fair for three years, where he won 3rd place in computer science each year. He earned a Bachelors in Physics, with Honors, from Stanford University, where he worked on an experiment with Yoshi Yamamoto to observe two-electron interference in a quantum point contact. Brian did his Ph.D. work with Jerry Gabrielse at Harvard University, measuring a new value for the electron magnetic moment using a one-electron quantum cyclotron. This measurement is a factor of 6 more accurate than the previous result (measured 20 years before) and is combined with quantum electrodynamics (QED) theory to yield the most accurate value for the fine structure constant and the most stringent test of QED. For this thesis research, he received the American Physical Society, Division of Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP) 2006 Thesis Prize. Brian was awarded a Kavli Center Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics (KICP), University of Chicago. At the KICP, he works with Juan Collar on COUPP, an experiment to use highly stable heavy-liquid bubble chambers as direct detectors for dark matter. Brian is the Fall 2006 Arthur H. Compton Lecturer at the Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago.

Steven Manson (Chair), Chris Monroe, Janine Shertzer, Aephraim Steinberg, Barry Walker