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AWARDS

2016 Governor’s Award - Cindy Regal and Konrad Lehnert

2016 Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research in Foundational Science and Technology

CO-LABS is a non-profit consortium of federal laboratories, research institutions, businesses and economic development organizations that provide financial and in-kind support for programs that promote the retention and expansion of Colorado scientific resources. Each year a special committee appointed by the CO-LABS Board of Directors reviews nominations from Colorado labs for the Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research and selects projects that have had a significant global, national, or state impact resulting from a scientific breakthrough, change in public policy, or development of a new technology. The Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research has honored Colorado scientists and engineers from federally funded research laboratories in Colorado since 2009.

Winner's Name

Cindy Regal and Konrad Lehnert

Awarded

August 30, 2016

Awarding Organization

CO-LABS

The Lehnert/Regal Quantum Machine Team has already racked up some major accomplishments on the path to these eagerly anticipated 21st century technologies. Their accomplishments include (1) the cooling of a drum made of about 1018 aluminum atoms to its quantum ground state, (2) the creation of the world’s first efficient two-way converter between electrical and optical signals––an important step along the way to making a fully quantum machine, and (3) the world’s first laser cooling of this converter––a human made object––to about 14 millionths of a degree above absolute zero.

Physics