Ana Maria Rey is a Colombian

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experime ...

, professor at

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

, a

JILA JILA, formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, is a physical science research institute in the United States. JILA is located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. JILA was founded in 1962 as a joint institute ...

fellow, a fellow at

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

and a fellow of the American Physical Society. Rey was the first

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

woman to win the

Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists was established in 2007 through a partnership between the Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Leonard Blavatnik (Russian: Леонид Валентинович Блаватник), chairman of Access Indust ...

in 2019.

Education

Rey earned a bachelor's degree in physics at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá in 1999 with a '' magna cum laude'' distinction. She got her Ph.D. in physics at

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

in 2004. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the

from 2004 to 2005 in the group of Charles W. Clark. She went on to work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics ( ITAMP) at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

from 2005 to 2008.

Research and career

After her postdoctoral position at ITAMP, she joined the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

Physics Department as an assistant research professor and

as an associate fellow in 2008. She was promoted to

Fellow in 2012 and shifted her position in the department of Physics to adjoint professor in 2017. Rey is a theoretical quantum physicist who works on ways of developing new techniques for controlling quantum systems and their applications ranging from quantum simulations/information to time and frequency standards. Her research is often directly applicable to state-of-the-art experiments, in particular to

atomic clock An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwe ...

s, quantum computing, and precision measurements. Her publications have been cited more than 11,000 times as of 2020.

Awards and honours

* 2013

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

* 2013

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. The White ...

*2014 Early Career National Hispanic Scientist of the Year *2014

Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award The Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award is an annual prize presented by the American Physical Society in recognition of an outstanding contribution to physics research by a woman. It recognizes and enhances outstanding achievements by women physicists in t ...

of the American Physical Society. * 2019

Personal life

On July 29, 2000, Rey got married. Two days later, she immigrated to the United States.

Selected publications

The most cited publications by Rey to the date are: * S Trotzky, P Cheinet, S Fölling, M Feld, U Schnorrberger, AM Rey. Time-resolved observation and control of superexchange interactions with ultracold atoms in optical lattices. (2008( ''Science'' 319 (5861), 295-299 * AV Gorshkov, M Hermele, V Gurarie, C Xu, PS Julienne, J Ye, P Zoller. Two-orbital SU (N) magnetism with ultracold alkaline-earth atoms. (2010) ''Nature physics'' 6 (4), 289-295 * B Yan, SA Moses, B Gadway, JP Covey, KRA Hazzard, AM Rey, DS Jin. Observation of dipolar spin-exchange interactions with lattice-confined polar molecules. (2013) ''Nature'' 501 (7468), 521-525 * JG Bohnet, BC Sawyer, JW Britton, ML Wall, AM Rey, M Foss-Feig. Quantum spin dynamics and entanglement generation with hundreds of trapped ions. (2016) ''Science'' 352 (6291), 1297-1301 * M Gärttner, JG Bohnet, A Safavi-Naini, ML Wall, JJ Bollinger, AM Rey. Measuring out-of-time-order correlations and multiple quantum spectra in a trapped-ion quantum magnet. (2017) ''Nature Physics'' 13 (8), 781-786 * X Zhang, M Bishof, SL Bromley, CV Kraus, MS Safronova, P Zoller. Spectroscopic observation of SU (N)-symmetric interactions in Sr orbital magnetism. (2014) ''Science'' 345 (6203), 1467-1473

References

External links

Interview with Ana Maria Rey on La W Radio

Curriculum Vitae
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rey, Ana Maria Colombian emigrants to the United States Living people People from Bogotá MacArthur Fellows Theoretical physicists Colombian women physicists 1970s births Harvard University alumni 21st-century physicists 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists University System of Maryland alumni Hispanic and Latino American scientists Hispanic and Latino American physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society