Institute for Theoretical, Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (ITAMP)

This project will continue the Theory Institute in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (ITAMP) at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) in Cambridge, MA. This institute will serve as a home where talented and aspiring fellows interact with visitors, staff scientists and faculty, and flourish in the larger AMO physics ecosystem in Cambridge. ITAMP will strive to be an incubator facility for theoretical AMO physics by providing resources, by creating a collaborative and enriching environment for the visiting fellows and for the training and mentoring of junior fellows, and by broadly advocating for the field, and leading in forefront research in AMO physics and educational outreach efforts to the broader community. ITAMP endeavors to make its activities accessible to as wide audience as possible. The ITAMP website will announce schedules and programs, visitors, colloquia, institute publications, outreach activities, and the annual newsletters. The workshop presentations, colloquia and Winter School lectures are webcast and archived on ITAMP public YouTube channel. The mentoring and training of young scientists in AMO theory is of primary importance to ITAMP. The Winter Graduate School, in cooperation with the B2 Institute, is an excellent opportunity for training students. Postdoctoral fellows organize luncheon discussions and interact with internationally diverse scientists. The senior postdocs will be invited to lecture at appropriately themed Winter Schools. ITAMP is determined to ensure that science minority representation is enhanced at meetings and in the ranks of the Institute fellows. AMO physics is an enabling science that has contributed to some of the most significant scientific and technical advances of the last two centuries. The evolution of AMO science has substantially impacted wide landscapes of modern physics; the development of clocks which revolutionized navigation and location sensing; the development of coherent sources of light which revolutionized commerce, medicine and personal computing; advances in control and manipulation of ultracold few-body and many-body systems which cross fertilized nuclear, molecular, plasma and condensed matter physics, and in this century to the explosion of advances in neutral atom and trapped ion quantum machines which can now broadly and fault tolerantly simulate quantum systems. AMO science remains pivotal and central to the future of physics and society. Theory has played a crucial role in these advances. The need to educate new generations of AMO theorists in an increasingly interdisciplinary world remains urgent and vital. ITAMP will host targeted workshops in which practitioners gather in critical mass to mount coordinated attacks on topical challenges in AMO physics. Postdoctoral fellows and students will benefit from proximity to these recognized figures in theoretical and experimental AMO science. Visiting fellows, housed in a contiguous office environment, will interact with the postdoctoral and scientific fellows in ways not otherwise possible. This proposal is jointly funded by the Atomic Molecular and Optical Theory and the Quantum Information Sciences programs in Physics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.