Terawit (Art) Kongruengkit

Biography

Art's non-traditional path provided him with a strong drive motivated by curiosity. He was born in Thailand and grew up in Charlotte, NC, where he discovered his passion for research while restoring a 1970 Mustang. While earning his Bachelor's in Chemistry, he shaped this passion into practical skills by volunteering as an undergraduate researcher for the super-capacitor subgroup of the Poler Research group at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

After obtaining his NSF GRFP fellowship, Art joined the Harter's and Wilson's groups at UCSB to study novel topological superconducting materials. He is currently working with John Harter to bring the optical helium-3 cryostat online (coupled with a Raman spectrometer and a Magneto-optical microscope). He plans to study and manipulate magnetic vortices that form on Type-II superconductors. These vortices (or fluxons) are the basis for the mechanism of a topological quantum computer. His goal is to help the Quantum Foundry's Thrust 1 develop materials that will tackle the decoherence problem plaguing modern quantum computers.