Dirk Bouwmeester

Dirk Bouwmeester obtained his PhD in 1995 from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. His PhD thesis dealt with experimental and theoretical research related to analog simulations of quantum-mechanical models using classical optics. With the support of a NWO (Dutch Physical Society) Talent stipend he became a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. R. Penrose at the Mathematical Institute in Oxford where he studied special "twisted" solutions of Maxwell's equations. From 1997 to 1999 D. Bouwmeester was a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. A. Zeilinger at the University of Innsbruck where he performed the first demonstration experiments of quantum teleportation and three-particle (GHZ) entanglement. From 1999 to 2001 he established a research group at the University of Oxford at the Centre for Quantum Computation directed by Prof. A. Ekert. There he performed first demonstrations of optimal quantum cloning of photon states and of stimulated emission of entangled photons. Since 2001 Bouwmeester holds a faculty position at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) where he initiated several new projects at the interface of physics, engineering, and biology. The topics are solid-state cavity Quantum Electro Dynamics, knotted-states of light, optical cooling and quantum states of micromechanical systems, and DNA-templated optical emitters. The research topics strongly profit from the strong nanoscience and engineering facilities at UCSB. 

Investigates topics related to quantum information science and quantum decoherence using optomechanical systems such as phononic crystal membranes made out of silicon nitride and diamond, and on-chip optical waveguides coupled to superfluid Helium.