Tom Loftus Email & Phone Number

Longmont, Colorado, United States

Chief Architect and Engineering Program Manager, OUSD(R&E) High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI)Technical lead, LM Quantum Technologies

Bothell, Washington, United States

Bothell, Washington, United States

Engineering Program Manager, OUSD(R&E) High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI)

Bothell, Wa

Inaugural class, LM Associate Fellows

Bothell, Wa

Optical Product ArchitectIntegrated Product Team Lead

Broomfield, Co

Broomfield, Co

Led the AOSense business group responsible for commercializing cold-atom-based frequency standards and related technologies. The group consisted of PhDs and a matrix team of mechanical, optical, and electrical engineers. I supervised and coordinated the team, set goals and priorities, delegated tasks, managed budgets, wrote proposals, and was the technical lead for the atomic references. I was the sales and technical lead for the AOSense commercial atom sources / laser cooling hardware. I also provided integration and maintenance support to customers and performed several in-the-field hardware upgrades.

Principal investigator for the DARPA Spatial, Temporal, and Orientation Information in Contested environments (STOIC) program, which is developing an ultra-stable clock suitable for GPS-like or better position, navigation, and time (PNT) solutions in environments where GPS is degraded or unavailable. Technical lead for the STOIC atomic reference; delivered sub-system hardware to a US government laboratory.

Sunnyvale, Ca

Principal investigator for the DARPA Quantum-Assisted Sensing and Readout (QuASAR) and NASA Portable source of Lattice trapped and Ultracold atomS (PLUS) programs, which are transitioning optical clocks from multi-table research devices to compact, integrated systems. Supervised and coordinated teams of physics PhDs and mechanical and electrical engineers; set goals and priorities; delegated tasks and managed budgets; technical and commercial lead for the integrated physics packages, atom optics, and laser cooling hardware; wrote proposals.• Spearheaded logistics, reporting, priorities and goals, vendor coordination, and budgeting.• Led system-level design and integration of the physics packages: CAD design and testing of high density optics plates, in-vacuum components, electronics interfaces, and custom opto-mechanics.• Technical lead for the laser cooling hardware with laboratory-grade performance, but 10× smaller packages, 10× less power consumption, and 180× better vacuum performance; received patent for the hardware designs.• Delivered two commercial versions of the QuASAR atomic beams / cooling systems to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for next-generation optical frequency standards.• Co-constructed two shoebox-size optical atomic clocks that underwent multi-week tests at AOSense and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Sunnyvale, Ca

Member of the DARPA High Dynamic Range Atom Sensors (HiDRA) team, which is transitioning high-performance inertial sensors based on atom interferometry to demanding, real-world platforms. Led the development of advanced magnetic field generators and novel high flux, small volume, and low-power sources of ultra-cold atoms.• Developed miniaturized and low-SWaP sources of laser cooled atoms; received patent for design.• Built and tested two generations of atom source prototypes and devised moderate-scale assembly procedures that allowed constructing 15 sources in parallel.• Designed and demonstrated trap magnetic field generators that avoid the electrical power, heat sinking, and design flexibility limits of traditional electromagnets.

Greater Seattle Area

Member of a research team conducting experimental, table-top tests of high-energy physics, specifically time-reversal symmetry via a search for the permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of 199Hg.• Completed a multi-year precision measurement that resulted in the most precise EDM limit thus far for any system; the results place new constraints on extensions to the Standard Model of Physics and indicate that 199Hg atoms are spherical to within ~ 6 protons out of the diameter of the Earth.• Lead author for a 0.1 ppb measurement of linear Stark interference in 199Hg (which is an EDM-mimicking systematic); measurement was featured on the cover of Physical Review Letters.• Co-principal investigator on two National Science Foundation grants, one supporting precision measurements and a second for a new laser facility in the physics department.

Greater Seattle Area

Project manager and lead scientist for kW-class fiber lasers based on spectrally beam combined and phase-locked fiber arrays.• Supervised a staff of optical and electrical engineers.• Managed all aspects of projects with combined budgets of > $1M.• Achieved record power and beam quality / Strehl ratios for the beam-combined fiber lasers.• Manager and technical lead for two Phase I SBIRs that successfully transitioned to Phase II.• Author on three patents.

Greater Denver Area

Member of a research team developing next-generation optical frequency standards.• Supervised graduate students and technical staff.• Co-designed and constructed the apparatus for a strontium optical frequency standard.• Measured the absolute frequency of the strontium 1S0 – 3P1 clock transition to better than 0.1 ppt.• Completed the first demonstration of sub-photon recoil cooling in a magneto-optical trap.• Lead author on the first measurement of an elastic collision resonance in an ultra-cold Fermi gas (led to studies of superconductivity in dilute gases).

The Innovative Technology Leader

Globally recognized course held in person at Stanford University with 28 peers from 14 countries and a broad range of industries..

Phd, Physics

Activities and Societies: Department of Education Graduate FellowshipDissertation: "Laser Cooling and Trapping of Atomic Ytterbium.".

Ba, Physics With Distinction

Minors in English Literature and Mathematics; Sally Ann Abshire Grant for Undergraduate Research