Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Quantum science is poised to tackle problems of mind-boggling complexity, with UW faculty and students in Arts & Sciences and Computer Science & Engineering playing a key role in quantum research.

In the 127 years since the electron was discovered, it has undergone more scrutiny than perhaps any other particle. As a result, its properties are not just well known, but rote, textbook material. So it came as a shock last year when a new effect was seen in electrons. The UW's Matthew Yankowitz, assistant professor of both physics and materials science and engineering, and Xiaodong Xu, professor of both physics and materials science and engineering, are quoted.