Caltech’s Rosenbaum to Discuss Quantum Revolution at Purdue Presidential Lecture

Thomas Rosenbaum, President of Caltech and a renowned expert in quantum physics, will join Purdue University President Mung Chiang in April for a conversation about the emerging field of quantum technology.

The event on Thursday, April 10, 6:30 p.m., will take place in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall on Purdue’s campus in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Titled “A Second Quantum Revolution: Harnessing Quantum Technology for the Future,” the lecture is free and open to the public, but a general admission ticket will be required. This appearance is part of Purdue’s ongoing Presidential Lecture Series.

“President Rosenbaum is both a brilliant scholar and a long-standing leader in American higher education,” Chiang said. “His own research in quantum physics is pioneering and his leading Caltech since 2014 has been highly impactful.”

Purdue University’s Presidential Lecture Series continues to invite leaders from across academia, industry, government, sports and the arts.

“We look forward to an intellectually exciting conversation with President Rosenbaum about science and university research,” Chiang added.

Quantum physics, which studies the fundamental building blocks of matter and energy, developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s from atomic experiments that defied classical physics explanations. The field examines how atoms and subatomic particles behave according to quantum physics, which differ dramatically from the observable world at human scale.

Applications of quantum physics appear in modern technology ranging from semiconductor chips and lasers to emerging innovations in quantum computing. Rosenbaum’s specific expertise focuses on the quantum mechanical nature of materials, studying electronic, magnetic and optical materials at the atomic level, which are best observed at temperatures near absolute zero.

Before assuming the Caltech presidency and the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair in 2014, Rosenbaum served as a faculty member and provost at the University of Chicago. His experience also includes work as vice president for research at Argonne National Laboratory.

Rosenbaum holds an A.B. from Harvard College (1977) and both an M.A. (1979) and Ph.D. (1982) from Princeton University.