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Ana Maria Rey (Fed)
Theoretical Physicist
Ana Maria Rey is a theoretical physicist with NIST and JILA, a joint research institute of NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder, and professor adjoint of physics at University of Colorado Boulder. She became an Associate JILA Fellow in 2008 and then a JILA Fellow in 2012 and a NIST Fellow in 2017, studying the scientific interface between atomic, molecular, and optical physics, condensed matter physics, quantum information science, and developing new techniques for controlling quantum systems for applications ranging from quantum simulations/information to time and frequency standards. Her work on quantum systems and quantum information has helped develop new techniques and has led to significant breakthroughs in this field. Rey’s work has been fundamental in breakthroughs in physics, such as developing accurate atomic clocks and dark matter sensors using quantum crystals.
Rey earned her PhD from the University of Maryland, where she trained under awarded scientists Charles W. Clark and Theodore R. Kirkpatrick. Rey is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and has earned many awards for her research, most notably the 2019 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists; the 2017 Alexander Cruickshank Award; the 2014 Early Career National Hispanic Scientist of the Year; the 2014 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award; the 2013 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; the 2013 Great Minds in Stem “Most Promising Scientist Award;” the 2012 CSWP Woman Physicist of the Month Award and the 2013 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship; the 2023 Department of Defense Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow. In 2022 she was made a member of Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales (Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences) in her home country of Colombia. She was inducted as a member of the National Academies of Science in the U.S. in 2023.
Rey participates in several quantum research initiatives, including the CUbit Quantum Initiative and the Quantum Systems through Entangled Science and Engineering (Q-SEnSE) center funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. In 2023, she became co-director of the JILA Physics Frontiers Center (PFC), an National Science Foundation-funded science center within JILA to realize precise measurements and cutting-edge manipulations to harness increasingly complex quantum systems.
Awards
- Inducted as a member of the National Academies of Science in the U.S. (2023)
- Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)
- Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists (2019)
- Alexander Cruickshank Award (2017)
- Early Career National Hispanic Scientist of the Year (2014 )
- Maria Goeppert Mayer Award (2014 )
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2013 )
- Great Minds in Stem “Most Promising Scientist Award” (2013 )
- MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship (2013)
- CSWP Woman Physicist of the Month Award (2012)
- Department of Defense Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow (2023)
- Member of Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales (Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences) in her home country of Colombia (2022)