Daniel Rugar           

Biography

Daniel Rugar is a Distinguished Research Staff Member and Manager of Quantum Devices and Measurements in the IBM Research Division. He began his scientific career in the field of scanning microscopy where, as a Ph.D. student at Stanford, he developed gigahertz-frequency acoustic microscopes operating in superfluid helium. After joining IBM in 1984, he contributed to the development of non-contact atomic force microscopy, especially for imaging magnetic materials. His group’s early work on magnetic force microscopy helped establish this technique as a standard tool for magnetic materials research and spintronics. Pushing the limits of mechanical force detection, his group’s achievement of attonewton sensitivity enabled the measurement of electron and nuclear spin resonance at the nanometer scale. This work culminated in the detection of an individual electron spin and the demonstration of 3D nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with better than 10 nm spatial resolution. Rugar’s group has also investigated the use of NV-centers in diamond for nanoscale MRI and is currently focused on improving the performance of superconducting qubits.

Dr. Rugar graduated from Pomona College in 1975 and received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1982. He has published over 120 scientific papers and holds 19 patents. In 2010 he was co-recipient of the Gunther Laukien Prize for his development of magnetic resonance force microscopy. He was awarded the Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Acacademy of Sciences for his 2009 paper on nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging. He was the 1999-2000 Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Magnetic Society. He received the 2004 Scientific American 50 award for research leadership in the field of imaging and the 2005 World Technology Award for Materials. He has also received IBM internal awards for contributions to scanning probe microscopy, near field optical data storage, single spin detection and nanoMRI. Most recently, he is the co-recipient of the APS Joseph Keithley Award for Advances in Measurement Science. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).