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he says. He now speaks French and some Dutch and Danish, and works on the campus of the Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center (IMEC), a Flemish research institute, where only 60 of some 1,200 people are Philips employees, and more than 500 are non-Belgian. “Each company has a different corporate culture, and you have to consider that when you organize teams,” he continues. “It’s some work to optimize differences without creating conflicts, so you can push the research without wasting your resources.” In addition to coordinating research projects within Philips, Hooker works with researchers at companies, universities and technical institutes across Europe, helping them to plan and conduct research “that’s relevant to us, but that they can also publish,” he says. “Sometimes this gives us at Philips a competitive advantage by having access to the best tools and technologies, allowing us to bring products to market more quickly.” While computer chip technology is a long way from reaching its limits, Hooker is already looking to his own future beyond research. Now he often serves in an advisory capacity to Philips Research managers as they set funding and prioritize future projects. “I find that I like project planning and doing road-mapping and strategy,” he says. “I’m interested in the challenge of working to predict the future.” Recipient of a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1996, Jacob Hooker holds five patents with several pending, and has over 30 publications and conference proceedings. He and his wife, Fay Dunkerley, have one child.
Aaron Miller, ’95 By Sarah Briggs In his lab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colo., Aaron Miller, ’95, is engaged in a research effort that he believes may someday rival the World War II-era Manhattan Project in terms of its scope. The research is described under the broad label of quantum information sciences, and, according to NIST, if their scientists are successful, it likely will represent the “next Information Age.” Calculations that might literally take decades on today’s computers, if they could be done at all, could be done in only months on a quantum computing system, Miller says. His research group is focusing on developing the devices needed to assist the transmission and reception of the encrypted data that can be processed on quantum computers. His recent work has focused on the development of an ultra-sensitive photon-counting detector—essentially a monitor for the light energy carrying data along fiber optic cable— that will allow quantum systems to achieve a level of security in communications that is not possible with today’s technology. “[Our] single-photon detector is the most sensitive in the world,” he explains. “Within the next year, we expect to be able to perform the first demonstration of perfectly secure telecommunication channels over distances of 100 km in collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory.” The U.S. Department of Defense is one of the leading backers of the research, for the possibilities it offers for securing classified information, but applications might also be developed in the banking industry,
Miller notes. He predicts that it could take 10 years for quantum information systems to become fully operational. Miller began his work on advanced light detection systems while a doctoral student at Stanford, and, as he searched for postdoctoral research opportunities in 2001, he discovered NIST was looking at some of the same questions he had been studying. At the time, no one had developed a light detector that had the precision needed for quantum communications systems. Miller saw his opening, joined NIST’s Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory, and has convinced the National Research Council and the Defense Department to fund his work, to the tune of $3-million over the last three years. He has since been named a staff scientist with that lab. At NIST, Miller says, “we’re pushing the forefront of measurement technology. . . . In our division [we] build the pioneering instruments that enable us to do the precise measurements that we were never able to do before.” Miller’s NIST colleagues include some of the nation’s leading physicists, including a few Nobel Prize winners, and he also collaborates with scientists at other government laboratories and major universities. The best days, he says, are those when he and his co-workers can shut themselves off for a few hours to brainstorm new directions for their research. “I really enjoy it here. . . . NIST allows us a fair amount of freedom over what we research, and yet we also get the institutional backing of an immense organization with a lot of scientific clout.” Miller says he wants to continue to “push the envelope” in his field, and currently is looking ahead to work on some more practical applications that require advanced detectors such as locating weapons concealed on airport travelers and battlefield imaging systems. His interest in the experimental aspects of research began at Albion in projects on three-dimensional displays and atomic physics conducted with College
Aaron Miller stands in front of the world’s most sensitive photon counter, an instrument he helped develop at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The silver cylinder is the cryogenic refrigerator that houses NIST’s advanced light detectors. This system is capable of cooling the devices to only a fraction of a degree above absolute zero to enable ultra-precise optical measurements. physics professors David Kammer and David Seely, respectively. “The faculty were always available and were very good mentors,” he recalls. He eventually completed majors in both physics and mathematics. In their upper-level courses and in their research experiences, students were encouraged to follow wherever their curiosity led them, Miller says. That’s an approach he still values. The two questions that matter most to him in any job, he says, are: “Am I learning? Am I being productive?” It appears the single-photon detector is only the first of the innovations we can expect from Aaron Miller. Says Albion’s David Seely: “I think he’s going to be right in the center of this country’s applied physics discoveries.” Aaron Miller earned a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University in 2001. His publications include articles in Physical Review, Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, and Astrophysical Journal. He is married to Holly Buege Miller, ’96, and they have one daughter. For more information on Aaron Miller’s work, go to: www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/ quantum.htm.
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