Nathalie Pulmones de Leon (born 1982) is a Filipino-American chemist, physicist, and associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton University. Her research focuses on building quantum technologies with solid state defects and the identification of novel materials systems for superconducting qubits.[1] She was awarded the 2023 American Physical Society Rolf Landauer and Charles H. Bennett Award in Quantum Computing.[2]

Nathalie Pulmones de Leon
Born1982 (age 41–42)
Alma materStanford University
Harvard University
Scientific career
InstitutionsPrinceton University
Thesis[ProQuest 877967609 Engineering confined Electrons and Photons at the Nanoscale] (2011)
Doctoral advisorHongkun Park
Other academic advisorsRichard Zare
Mikhail Lukin

Early life and education

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Nathalie de Leon was born in Makati, the Philippines, in 1982 and raised in California.[3][4] Her parents were also born in the Philippines. Her maternal grandfather was a commercial seaman who was stationed in San Francisco during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was subsequently offered U.S. citizenship contingent on joining the United States Coast Guard. de Leon spent part of her childhood in the Philippines but completed high school in the United States.[4]

De Leon was an undergraduate student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. She completed her undergraduate research in the laboratory of Richard Zare, where she worked on laser spectroscopy. She performed laser-based mass spectrometry on meteoritic samples to explore chemical reactions in space.[1] de Leon moved to Harvard University for her doctoral research in chemical physics, where she joined the laboratory of Hongkun Park.

Her research looked to achieve nanoscale confinement of electrons and photons.[5] She developed a nanoscale plasmon resonator capable of tailoring specific light-matter interactions, and demonstrated it convert a broadband emitter to a narrow-band single-photon source.[6] de Leon remained at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher, working with Mikhail Lukin.[citation needed]

Awards and honors

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Select publications

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Personal life

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de Leon is married, and met her husband while she was completing her postdoc appointment at Harvard and he was finishing his PhD.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Welcomes Nathalie de Leon (Princeton University) | QFARM". qfarm.stanford.edu. Stanford University. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Lyon, Scott (October 7, 2022). "Solid-state expert Nathalie de Leon has won the APS quantum computing award". Electrical and Computer Engineering. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  3. ^ de Leon, Nathalie P.; Lukin, Mikhail D.; Park, Hongkun (2012). "Quantum Plasmonic Circuits". IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. 18 (6): 1781–1791. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.453.8971. doi:10.1109/JSTQE.2012.2197179. S2CID 16846746.[non-primary source needed]
  4. ^ a b c American Institute of Physics (March 15, 2022). "Nathalie de Leon". www.aip.org. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  5. ^ de Leon, Nathalie Pulmones (2011). Engineering confined Electrons and Photons at the Nanoscale (Thesis). ProQuest 877967609.[non-primary source needed]
  6. ^ de Leon, Nathalie P.; Shields, Brendan J.; Yu, Chun L.; Englund, Dirk E.; Akimov, Alexey V.; Lukin, Mikhail D.; Park, Hongkun (May 31, 2012). "Tailoring Light-Matter Interaction with a Nanoscale Plasmon Resonator". Physical Review Letters. 108 (22): 226803. arXiv:1202.0829. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.226803. PMID 23003638. S2CID 6880833.[non-primary source needed]
  7. ^ "Nathalie De Leon receives U.S. Air Force Young Investigator award". Office of the Dean for Research. October 18, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  8. ^ "de Leon named as 2017 Sloan Research Fellow". Electrical and Computer Engineering. February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  9. ^ "NSF Award Search: Award # 1752047 - CAREER: Novel Diamond Surface Functionalization and Nanoscale Surface Spectroscopy for Quantum Applications". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  10. ^ "FY 2018 DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program Award Abstracts (06-27-2018)" (PDF). July 6, 2018.
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