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Phone number: +44 (0)1223 339432

Email: uws20@cam.ac.uk

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Professor Ulrich Schneider

Fellow, Director of Studies in Natural Sciences (Physics Part II, Part III and MASt)
University Positions
Professor of Many-Body Physics
Specialising in
Physics

Ulrich Schneider is a Professor of Many-Body Physics.

Academic interests

Ulrich Schneider's main research interest is many-body dynamics. Following a statement by P. W. Anderson, 'More is Different'; genuine many-body phenomena are emergent phenomena that only appear when many particles come together, typical examples being superfluidity or magnetism.

We study these effects using ultracold atoms, that is Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases, which we load into optical lattices. These periodic optical potentials play the role of the electrostatic potential felt by electrons in a conventional solid.

Thereby, we effectively build a quantum simulator for condensed matter physics, where we can study many-body physics in a very clean and precisely controlled system and have all the tools from quantum optics at our disposal.

In addition to the above work on Quantum Simulators, we are also working on Quantum Sensors in the form of large-scale atom interferometry.

Degrees obtained

  • Diploma in Physics, TU Kaiserslautern 2004.
  • PhD, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, 2011.

Awards and prizes

  • IOP Joseph Thomson Medal, 2023.
  • ERC Consolidator Grant, 2021.
  • ERC Starting Grant, 2016.
  • Rudolf-Kaiser Preis, 2016.
  • Aspen Winter Prize, 2015.
  • Dissertation prize of the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science at the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, 2012.

Biography

Before coming to Cambridge, I worked as a Senior Scientist and Group Leader in the Quantum Optics group at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich. Before that, I did a PhD at the Johannes-Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, supervised by Professor Immanuel Bloch and read physics at the Universität Kaiserslautern.

Other interests

Mountain biking, hiking, music (bass guitar).

Publications, links and resources

Find more information about Ulrich Schneider's publications and research on:

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Article in Cavendish Laboratory Magazine, February 2016:  

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