Esther Wertz Wins NSF CAREER Award

The National Science Foundation has named Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute physicist Esther Wertz the winner of its CAREER award to support her investigation of nanometer-scale metal structures that will control light at the quantum limit. “I’m interested in understanding how quantum states, either single photons or qubits, interact with components of what, in the future, might be a photonic quantum circuit,” Wertz said. “My work is aimed at manipulating quantum states without destroying superposition.” A photon can be held in a device known as an optical cavity, and Wertz is interested in exploring a type of optical cavity that relies on plasmonic nanoparticles or “plasmons,”...