Ben Brubaker Email & Phone Number

New York, New York, United States

I cover theoretical computer science, including computational complexity theory, the fundamental limits of algorithms, quantum information science, and machine learning.

Northampton, Massachusetts, United States

I try to make physics accessible to a broadly curious audience of non-experts. I'm especially interested in writing about the tools and techniques (experimental and theoretical) that make physics research possible.

Boulder, Co

I worked for professors Konrad Lehnert and Cindy Regal on a collaborative project towards the development of a mechanically-mediated quantum electro-optic converter. Such a device would constitute a reversible, lossless, and coherent link between these widely separated regions of the electromagnetic spectrum in which technology for quantum measurement and control is highly developed. It could also serve as a crucial component in a quantum network in which secure communication would be guaranteed by fundamental physical law. During my time on the project we made major improvements to the performance of a previous-generation prototype converter and demonstrated some qualitatively new capabilities. You can find manuscripts describing these results at the links below.

Boulder, Co

Two years of my work on the project described above was funded through a NRC postdoctoral fellowship at NIST.

My PhD research at Yale was under the supervision of professor Steve Lamoreaux. Our experiment, called HAYSTAC, searches for hypothetical particles called axions which may constitute the dark matter that makes up 80% of the mass in the universe.I was the first graduate student on this project and thus had the rare opportunity to contribute at basically every level to the work required to bring the experiment from the design stage through the first physics results. This work has given me a wide range of hands-on skills applicable to many fields of experimental physics, experience in developing data acquisition and analysis software, and familiarity with quantum electronics and the measurement of extremely weak signals.My PhD thesis was awarded the 2019 Mitsuyoshi Tanaka award, an annual award for the best dissertation in particle physics (see below). My thesis and the full text of the most important publication resulting from this work are also linked below.

I served as a TA for an undergraduate course in science policy writing, an undergraduate quantum mechanics lecture course, and three different lab courses. I wrote the official manual for one of these labs, an intensive hands-on introduction to fabrication of and measurements on superconducting tunnel junctions for junior and senior undergraduate physics majors.

After completing my BA, I worked for a year as a research assistant/site manager for the Fermilab Holometer experiment. During this time I assembled and maintained ultra-high vacuum conditions in two 40-meter Michelson interferometers, and contributed to many of the day-to-day technical tasks necessary to carry the experiment from the design phase to commissioning and operation.

As an undergraduate at UChicago I worked in professor Yau Wah's kaon physics group on detector simulation and testing ADC boards. I received departmental honors for my senior thesis, on developing a neural network to reconstruct photon trajectories in CsI scintillators.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Physics

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Physics