Picking School for Quantum Info And/Or Particle Physics

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thisisphysics
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:43 am

Picking School for Quantum Info And/Or Particle Physics

Post by thisisphysics » Sat Mar 23, 2019 12:01 am

Hey! I'm a junior right now and I'm looking at different schools for quantum info and/or experimental particle physics. Really interested in both fields as well as intersections between the two, so interdisciplinary programs are awesome! I have a few names so far: Caltech because of IQIM, Northwestern because of their new Center for Fundamental Physics, UPenn's because of their Particle Cosmology, Harvard because of the Center for Ultracold Atoms and the amazing people in it, but other than that, what other schools? I definitely need to apply to more, since all the schools I listed above are COMPLETE reaches! No guarantee whatsoever I'll be admitted, so I need safeties. Does anybody have recommendations?

lob_124
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2019 2:14 pm

Re: Picking School for Quantum Info And/Or Particle Physics

Post by lob_124 » Sun Mar 24, 2019 10:12 am

Those are some great choices, even if they are the obvious ones!

University of Maryland (College Park) has a very strong QI program (and hep-ex too, actually) - I have a friend who's considering going there for QI. Colorado Boulder also has a strong reputation in QI (and AMO in general), but I'm not sure about their hep-ex presence. UIUC also recently established a center for QI (IQIST) that got a big cash injection from the university. It just started, so it hasn't had time to build a reputation yet, but given Illinois's reputation in condensed matter I'm sure it will be quite good. Their hep-ex faculty also seem to be pretty good, but there aren't a whole lot of them compared to other schools.

Also, if you need a safety school, UMass Amherst (my undergrad school) has a pretty good hep-ex presence (in particular, our ATLAS group is very good); we have little to nothing for QI though sadly. Not sure if we're too much of a safety, given the other schools you've listed, but it's worth mentioning!

thisisphysics
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:43 am

Re: Picking School for Quantum Info And/Or Particle Physics

Post by thisisphysics » Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:23 am

Thank you so much! Those schools seem wonderful, I'll definitely add them to my list.

chris314
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:44 pm

Re: Picking School for Quantum Info And/Or Particle Physics

Post by chris314 » Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:14 am

I would also recommend checking out the University of New Mexico's physics department and optical science engineering department. I did a campus tour and was really impressed by the research being done there and the focus of the department. They don't do research in every subfield of physics, but they're solid in what they do which seems to focus on AMO and QI. One of the professors there records his lectures and has them online, I haven't watched them but other people speak highly of them and he seems like he would make a good advisor. http://info.phys.unm.edu/~ideutsch/
I would also check out their center for quantum information and control, several graduate students worked primarily with people at a national lab which appealed to me.



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