Benjamin D. Smith
Biography
Benjamin D. Smith graduated in 2015 with a B.Sc. in physics, cum laude, from Brigham Young University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alberta under Prof. Lindsay LeBlanc. His experimental research centers around the interactions between light and various forms of quantum matter, both ultracold Bose-Einstein condensates and room-temperature atomic vapors. In addition to research, he is passionate about teaching and illuminating the amazing world of quantum mechanics. Benjamin and his wife, Kristie, are the parents of three wonderful children.
Curriculum Vitae
Listed below are important highlights from my CV:
Click here to download full copy of my CV.
(Updated March 3, 2023)
Education
University of Alberta, Department of Physics
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2016 - Present
- GPA: 3.64/4.00
- Supervisor: Professor Lindsay J. LeBlanc [link]
Brigham Young University, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Provo, Utah, USA
2009 - 2015
- GPA: 3.87/4.00
- Minors: Mathematics, Music
- Senior Thesis: Reflectance Measurements of Two Thin Film Materials in the UV [link]
Research Positions
Department of Physics, University of Alberta
Supervisor: Professor Lindsay J. LeBlanc [link]
2016 – Present
- Upgraded a warm-atom microwave cavity system and performed experiments in nonlinear optics, microwave-to-optical conversion, and magnetometry.
- Developed ‘Spinor-GPE‘, an open-source Python package for GPU accelerated solutions to the two-component, nonlinear Schrodinger equation, with applications for spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). [link]
- Operated an ultracold 87Rb BEC apparatus for experiments in quantum memory and spin-orbit coupling.
Brigham Young University, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Supervisors: Professors R. Steven Turley & David D. Allred
2014 – 2015
- Refurbished a discharge light source for generating the 30.4 nm extreme ultraviolet (EUV) helium emission line.
- Recommissioned a monochrometer for vacuum ultraviolet reflectance measurements of thin film aluminum
- Collected EUV reflectance data of thin film Y2O3 samples at the Advanced Light Source; fit a reflectance model to extract the film optical constants.
Brigham Young University, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Supervisor: Professor Branton J. Campbell [link]
2013 – 2014
- Calculated and tabulated thermal position distributions of crystal ions in various point symmetries.
Teaching Experience
Brigham Young University - Idaho, Department of Physics
January – July 2016
- PHYS 150: Beginning Physics Lab (Winter & Spring 2016).
- PHYS 121: Principles of Physics 1 (Spring 2016).
- PHYS 220: Principles of Physics 3 (Winter 2016).
University of Alberta, Department of Physics
September 2016 – December 2018
- PHYS 292: Experimental Physics for Engineers (2018).
- PHYS 295: Experimental Physics I (2017).
- PHYS 372: Quantum Mechanics A (2017).
- PHYS 130: Wave Motion, Optics, and Sound (2016).
Brigham Young University, Department of Physics and Astronomy
January 2014 – August 2015
- PHYS 245: Experiments in Contemporary Physics (2015).
- PHYS 108: General Physics Lab 2 (2014).
- PHYS 123: Introduction to Waves, Optics, and Thermodynamics (2014).
Publications
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GPU-accelerated solutions of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation for simulating 2D spinor BECs
Benjamin D. Smith, Logan W. Cooke, Lindsay J. LeBlanc. Computer Physics Communications 275 (2022): 108314. -
Storing short single-photon-level optical pulses in Bose–Einstein condensates for high-performance quantum memory
Erhan Saglamyurek, Taras Hrushevskyi, Anindya Rastogi, Logan W Cooke, Benjamin D Smith, Lindsay J LeBlanc. New Journal of Physics 23.4 (2021): 043028. -
Y2O3 optical constants between 5 nm and 50 nm
Joseph B. Muhlestein, Benjamin D. Smith, Margaret Miles, Stephanie M. Thomas, Anthony Willey, David D. Allred, R. Steven Turley. Optics Express 27.3 (2019): 3324-3336.