Girvin, who joined the Yale faculty in 2001, is a theoretical physicist and pioneer in the field of quantum physics.
Steven Girvin, a theoretical physicist and pioneer in the field of quantum physics, was recently named the Sterling Professor of Physics and professor of applied physics, effective immediately.
A Sterling Professorship is considered the highest academic honor a Yale professor can receive.
Girvin, who joined the Yale faculty in 2001, is a member of Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in the Department of Physics. He has a secondary appointment in Applied Physics in the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science.
He earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Princeton University in 1977.
Girvin’s research focuses on theoretical studies of quantum many-particle systems, atomic physics, quantum optics, and quantum computation. His work at Yale on “Circuit QED,” the quantum physics of microwave electrical circuits using superconducting Josephson junctions as artificial atoms coupled to individual microwave photons, has illuminated the interactions that exist between light and matter. The Yale team of Girvin, Robert Schoelkopf, and Michel Devoret implemented the first all-electronic quantum processor and executed two-qubit quantum algorithms. In addition, across more than 300 published papers, more than 600 talks and presentations, and two books, he has provided new insight into problems such as the quantum Hall effect, the superconductor-insulator transition, and quantum spin chains.
Girvin’s contributions to quantum computing, said FAS Dean Tamar Gendler, are profound and have the potential to transform the future of physics.
In addition to his position on the Yale faculty, Girvin has served in leadership roles that speak to his national and global influence. From 2020 to 2021, he served as founding director of the Co- Design Center for Quantum Advantage at Brookhaven National Laboratory; in 2019 he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Strategic Planning Committee; he was a founding member of scientific advisory boards for the Simons Foundation, and he served on the program committee for the Nobel Symposium on Emerging Quantum Technologies from 2018 to 2022.
He has also served on advisory boards for quantum-focused research centers and institutes at the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, the California Institute of Technology, the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, and WACQT, the national quantum effort in Sweden. He co-founded the Boulder Summer School in Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, has held leadership roles in the American Physical Society, and has shaped research agendas in the field as a member of numerous National Science Foundation panels, editorial boards, and program committees.
At Yale, Girvin served as deputy provost for science and technology from 2007 to 2015 and deputy provost for research from 2015 to 2017, and he serves a central role in Yale’s Quantum Institute.
In recognition of his research and contributions to the field, Girvin has been elected fellow of the American Physical Society, fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2007, he and his collaborators, Allan H. MacDonald and James P. Eisenstein, were awarded the Oliver E. Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society “for fundamental experimental and theoretical research on correlated many-electron states in low dimensional systems.” In 2017, Girvin received an honorary degree from Chalmers University of Technology in recognition of his work co-developing Circuit QED. In 2003, he was the inaugural recipient of the Conde Award for Teaching Excellence in Physics from Yale’s Department of Physics.
Before coming to Yale, Girvin held a Distinguished Professorship at Indiana University.
This article is duplicated from the Yale News article of September 4, 2024.