The Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (ITAMP) is an international scientific learned society based at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. It was established in 1988 to alleviate a perceived shortage of theorists in

atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO) is the study of matter–matter and light–matter interactions, at the scale of one or a few atoms and energy scales around several electron volts. The three areas are closely interrelated. AMO th ...

(AMO) at major universities throughout America. AMO concerns the study of matter-matter and light-matter interactions at the scale of one or a few atoms. The stated objectives of the Institute are: * To attract and train scientists of the highest quality in theoretical atomic, molecular, and optical physics * To maintain an active visitors' program to bring senior researchers together for scientific collaboration * To establish a strong post-doctoral fellowship program. The objectives are tackled by fostering an intellectually stimulating environment, developing pioneering research areas, facilitating closer interactions between AMO theory and experiment and promoting AMO theory within the general physics community. It has been involved in some capacity in most of the National Research Council target areas, i.e. precision measurements and tests of fundamental laws, ultracold physics, the development and application of ultra-intense, short wavelength light sources, ultra-fast quantum control of atoms, molecules and electrons, nanoscience, and quantum information science. The Institute is sponsored by the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

History

The Armstrong Report in 1987 on "The State of Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Sciences in the United States" (National Academy Press, 1987) recommended the setting up of an institute to facilitate the exchange of scientific knowledge and ideas in the AMO field. ITAMP, originally the Institute for Theoretical Atomic and Molecular Physics was set up in 1988 at Harvard University under its first director

Alexander Dalgarno Alexander Dalgarno FRS (5 January 1928 – 9 April 2015) was a British physicist who was a Phillips Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. Biography Alexander Dalgarno was born in London in 1928, and spent his childhood there. He was ed ...

to fulfil that need. The name was changed in 2002 to the Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics although the established ITAMP acronym remained unchanged. Dalgarno handed control over to

Rick Heller Rick Heller is an American college baseball coach and former shortstop, who is the current head baseball coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Heller played college baseball at Upper Iowa for head coach Bill Prochaska from 1982 to 1986. He then served as ...

in 1993, who left the post in 1998. It was then directed (from 2001) by Kate Kirby, who was later joined as joint director by Misha Lukin. In 2016 the director is Hossein Sadeghpour.

References

{{authority control Physics research institutes Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Harvard University Learned societies of the United States Research institutes in Massachusetts Scientific organizations established in 1988