Scully Selected for Eminent Harvard Lectureship

Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor of Physics Dr. Marlan O. Scully has been selected as a 2007 Morris Loeb Lecturer in Physics at Harvard University.

Scully, a world-renowned pioneer in quantum and laser physics, is the latest in a staggering line of internationally eminent scientists and mathematicians to receive the highly coveted command-performance opportunity. The list of past Loeb Lecturers includes 40 Nobel Prize winners, such as Paul Dirac, Enrico Fermi, Werner Heisenberg, Norman Ramsey, C.N. Yang and many others with whom Scully has conducted collaborative research, including Willis Lamb, Julian Schwinger, Charles Townes and Eugene P. Wigner. Additional names of note include Freeman Dyson (Templeton Prize), Victor Weiskopf (Wolf Prize) and Edward Witten (Pitagora Prize in Mathematics).

“Once again, Marlan Scully brings great honor to his college and his colleagues with this most esteemed recognition of his research and general eminence in both quantum physics and outreach,” said Dr. H. Joseph Newton, dean of the College of Science. “His participation in this activity not only brings greater visibility to the quantum science initiative currently under way in Texas, but also to the Department of Physics, College of Science, Texas A&M University and the entire Texas A&M University System.”

As a Loeb Lecturer, Scully will travel to Cambridge, Mass., next spring to deliver a series of five lectures concerning the latest developments in his research into the foundations and applications of quantum physics, from quantum erasure and quantum searching to using quantum coherence to make lasing without inversion and to detect anthrax.

“Marlan is, as the saying goes, a legend in his own time,” said Dr. Dudley R. Herschbach, 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard who also holds a half-time faculty appointment in physics at Texas A&M. “It’s hard to believe that he’s one person, because he’s done so many things in science in so many different areas that one can only assume he’s a tribe. He has so many ideas and is so deeply focused on the fundamental, basic questions in science that what he does invariably makes contact with a lot of other people and has great impact on their work.

“He’s the ideal Loeb Lecturer, because I’m sure he will be prodding and challenging his audience with the kinds of questions and ideas that will prompt a very stimulating discussion.”

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea and the Max-Planck Society, Scully holds joint appointments as a professor at both Texas A&M University and Princeton University. At Texas A&M, he holds the Hershel E. Burgess ’29 Chair in Physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the Texas Engineering Experiment Station. His multiple appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the College of Science, professor in chemistry and engineering, and director of both the Institute for Quantum Studies and the Center for Theoretical Physics within the College of Science.

A highly decorated researcher and scholar, Scully has received a number of awards and professional honors, including the Adolph E. Lomb Medal and Charles H. Townes Award from the Optical Society of America, the Quantum Electronics Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., the Elliott Cresson Medal from the Franklin Institute, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Distinguished Faculty Prize and the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize from the American Physical Society.

“The Loeb Lectureship is a fine and appropriate recognition for Marlan, and it also reflects nicely on Texas A&M University,” Herschbach added. “When people see that he’s from Texas A&M University, they automatically think, ‘Gee, that must be a special place if a guy like him chooses to make it his home base.’ ”

Consider Herschbach an expert in the so-called “Scully effect.” In 2005 he was drawn to Texas A&M and Scully, whose research group at the Institute for Quantum Studies had found a solution to dimensional scaling, a problem that had long intrigued Herschbach while at Harvard. Herschbach cited his subsequent collaborative work with Scully in chemical physics as a key factor in his decision to accept his current appointment at Texas A&M.

To help explain not only Scully’s allure but also the relevance behind his Loeb Lecturer selection, Herschbach said one need look no further than to the passionate support of local sports teams.

“It’s a curious thing that ordinary citizens identify themselves so strongly with the success of their local sports teams and athletes,” he explained. “If the home team does well, it reflects on you, and you feel good about that. The same is true of the Olympics. We may not have heard of the swimmer or shot putter from College Station who got the gold medal, but I guarantee we will feel good about it. We should feel the same way about our scientists when they deliver outstanding performances.”

Established by the Harvard Department of Physics in 1953 under the terms of a bequest by Morris Loeb, the Loeb Lectureship boasts a long and distinguished tradition, both in advancing scholarly knowledge in physics and in recognizing those individuals most responsible for that advancement. For more information on the series and past honorees, visit http://www.physics.harvard.edu/about/loeb.html.

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Contact: Shana K. Hutchins, (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamu.edu