Steven Lamoreaux, an atomic physicist whose research has contributed to our understanding of the dark matter that is bound to our galaxy, was recently appointed the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, effective immediately.
He is a member of Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and Yale’s Wright Lab in the Department of Physics.
Lamoreaux joined the Yale faculty in 2006, having previously held appointments at the University of Washington, the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
He is currently the Principal Investigator for the HAYSTAC dark matter experiment, a collaboration between physicists at Yale, Johns Hopkins, and the University of California, Berkeley. Designed in part and assembled by Lamoreaux’s team at Yale beginning in 2010, the HAYSTAC experiment, located at Wright Lab, produces new data that address our understandings of the nature of dark matter. The detector is among the first to use squeezed quantum states to improve sensitivity beyond the fundamental quantum limit of linear amplifiers.
Lamoreaux has advanced the experimental search for dark matter in the form of hypothetical particles called axions, through radiofrequency conversion and detection using quantum enabled measurement techniques developed by the collaboration. In addition, he has made significant contributions to ultracold neutron (UCN) physics and he plays a critical role in the UCN program at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge.
In his earlier work, he made key advancements in in quantum computing, cryptography, and the Casimir force, a physical force that arises from quantum fluctuations. He has published more than 200 papers on these topics in top journals in his field, including Physical Review, The American Journal of Physics, Nature, and others. Most recently, Lamoreaux has played an integral role in launching the ALPHA project, a new collaborative experiment that is complementary to HAYSTAC and will also be operated at Wright Lab. In short, Lamoreaux is a physicist of wide-ranging interests and intellect who has advanced the frontiers of several fields.
Lamoreaux’s research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Heising-Simons Foundation. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1997, and his contributions to the field have been recognized with awards for distinguished performance from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Pipkin Award for Precision Measurements from the American Physical Society, and other honors. Lamoreaux is an engaged collaborator who has contributed to his field by serving on panels for the National Science Foundation, and in an editorial capacity for Physical Review, European Journal of Physics, Physics Letters, and other major publications in his field.
At Yale, he teaches graduate courses in atomic physics, quantum mechanics, and statistical physics. He offers undergraduate courses on instrumentation and lab methodologies and taught a course on the physics of the Earth and environment offered in conjunction with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Recently, he taught a course on the history of the concept of the atom, focusing on the Manhattan Project. He is also active in outreach beyond Yale: he has participated in the Physics Olympics and creates laboratory internship opportunities for local high school students. His work has been featured in documentaries for the BBC and PBS, as well as in the New York Times.
Lamoreaux received his B.S. in 1981 from the University of Washington and M.S. from the University of Oregon in 1982. In 1986 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington where he developed precision experimental techniques employing optically pumped mercury and applied those techniques to measurement of spatial isotropy and time reversal symmetry.
This article has been adapted from a Yale News article from November 3, 2024, linked below.