{{Short description|American physicist (born 1950)}} {{Infobox academic | name = Steven Girvin | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1950|04|05}} | birth_place = Austin, Texas, U.S. | fields = | discipline = {{hlist|Applied physics|condensed matter physics}} | sub_discipline = {{ubl|{{nobr|Circuit quantum electrodynamics}}|{{nobr|Fractional quantum Hall effect}}}} | workplaces = {{ubl|Indiana University Bloomington|Yale University}} | education = {{ubl|Bates College (BS)|University of Maine (MS)|Princeton University (MS, PhD)}} | thesis_title = Topics in Condensed Matter Physics | thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/302839183/ | thesis_year = 1977 | doctoral_advisor = John J. Hopfield | notable_students = | known_for = | title = Sterling Professor, Physics | awards = Oliver E. Buckley Prize (2007) | footnotes = }} '''Steven Mark Girvin''' (born April 5, 1950) is an American physicist who is Sterling Professor of Physics and Professor of Applied Physics at Yale University. He is noted for his theoretical work on quantum many body systems such as the fractional quantum Hall effect, and as co-developer of circuit quantum electrodynamics (circuit QED), the application of the ideas of quantum optics to superconducting microwave circuits. Circuit QED is now the leading architecture for construction of quantum computers based on superconducting qubits.
==Early life and education== Steven Mark Girvin<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steven Girvin |url=https://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=160731 |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=The Mathematics Genealogy Project}}</ref> was born in Austin, Texas, on April 5, 1950,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Girvin, Steven M. |url=https://history.aip.org/phn/11511007.html |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Physics History Network |publisher=American Institute of Physics}}</ref> and attended high school in Brant Lake, New York, graduating with a class of five students.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Emanuel |first=Janet Rettig |date=2006-05-01 |title=Yale Physicist Steven Girvin Named National Academy of Sciences Fellow |url=https://news.yale.edu/2006/05/01/yale-physicist-steven-girvin-named-national-academy-sciences-fellow |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=YaleNews |publisher=Yale University |language=en}}</ref> Girvin attended Bates College, where he was a Charles M. Dana Scholar and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, receiving a B.S. degree in physics in 1971. He also received an M.S. from the University of Maine in 1973.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://girvin.sites.yale.edu/curriculum-vitae |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Professor Steven M. Girvin |publisher=Yale University}}</ref>
Girvin later completed postgraduate studies at Princeton University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, receiving an M.S. in 1974 and a Ph.D. in 1977.<ref name=":1" /> His doctoral thesis, published in 1976, was entitled ''Topics in Condensed Matter Physics: The Role of Exchange in the Lithium K Edge and the Fluorescence Spectrum of Heavily Doped Cadmium Sulphide''. His doctoral advisor was John J. Hopfield,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Girvin |first=Steven M. |url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/9920795233506421 |title=Topics in Condensed Matter Physics: The Role of Exchange in the Lithium K Edge and the Fluorescence Spectrum of Heavily Doped Cadmium Sulphide |date=1976 |publisher=Princeton University |oclc=39390676}}</ref> who later received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024.
== Career ==
=== Early career === From 1977 to 1979, Girvin worked as a postdoctoral researcher at both Indiana University Bloomington and Chalmers University of Technology, under the advising of G. D. Mahan. Girvin then held a physicist position at the National Bureau of Standards from 1979 to 1987, where he received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for Superior Federal Service in 1983. He joined the faculty of Indiana University in 1987, where he was named Distinguished Professor in 1992, before moving to Yale in 2001.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Zierler |first=David |date=July 2, 2020 |title=Steven Girvin |url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/44930 |access-date=2024-06-30 |website=Oral History Interviews |publisher=American Institute of Physics |language=en}}</ref>
=== Yale University === At Yale, Girvin was initially appointed as the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics in 2005. In addition to his research and teaching, he served in senior administrative roles: as Deputy Provost for Science and Technology from 2007 to 2015, and as Deputy Provost for Research from 2015 to 2017, overseeing research and strategic planning in the basic sciences and engineering across the university, as well as entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology transfer. In 2017, he stepped down from his administrative role to return full-time to teaching and research.<ref name="sterling">{{Cite web |date=2024-09-04 |title=Steven Girvin named Sterling Professor of Physics |url=https://news.yale.edu/2024/09/04/steven-girvin-named-sterling-professor-physics |access-date=2025-02-22 |website=YaleNews |publisher=Yale University |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Steven Girvin |url=https://quantuminstitute.yale.edu/people/steven-girvin |access-date=2025-02-22 |website=Yale Quantum Institute |publisher=Yale University}}</ref>
In September 2020, Girvin was appointed as the founding director of the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C<sup>2</sup>QA) located at Brookhaven National Laboratory, one of five [https://science.osti.gov/Initiatives/QIS/QIS-Centers national quantum information science research centers] funded by the Department of Energy. C<sup>2</sup>QA comprises principal investigators across 24 institutions working on basic research to advance the performance of quantum computer modules. He served in this role until 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2020/09/08/steve-girvin-named-director-of-co-design-center-for-quantum-advantage/|title = Steve Girvin named director of Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage|date = 8 September 2020}}</ref><ref name="sterling" />
In June 2024, Girvin, who was then Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steven Girvin |url=https://physics.yale.edu/people/steven-girvin |access-date=2024-06-26 |website=Department of Physics |publisher=Yale University |language=en |quote=Steven Girvin: Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics}}</ref> became Sterling Professor of Physics, the highest academic honor bestowed upon a Yale faculty member.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steven Girvin |url=https://physics.yale.edu/people/steven-girvin |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=Department of Physics |publisher=Yale University |language=en |quote=Steven Girvin: Sterling Professor of Physics}}</ref> He holds appointments both as a professor of physics and as a professor of applied physics in the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steven M. Girvin {{!}} Department of Applied Physics |url=https://appliedphysics.yale.edu/steven-m-girvin |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=appliedphysics.yale.edu |language=en}}</ref>
Girvin has also served on advisory boards for quantum-focused research centers at the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, the California Institute of Technology, the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA). He was a founding member of scientific advisory boards for the Simons Foundation and served on the program committee for the Nobel Symposium on Emerging Quantum Technologies from 2018 to 2022.<ref name="sterling" />
== Research == Girvin's research focus has been the theoretical study of collective quantum behavior in strongly correlated many-body systems and their phase transitions;<ref>{{Cite web |last=Emanuel |first=Janet Rettig |date=2006-11-14 |title=Yale's Girvin Honored for His Work on Quantum States of Matter |url=https://news.yale.edu/2006/11/14/yales-girvin-honored-his-work-quantum-states-matter |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=YaleNews |publisher=Yale University |language=en}}</ref> he has worked on problems such as the quantum Hall effect, the superconductor–insulator transition, and quantum spin chains. Over his career, he has published more than 300 papers and given more than 600 talks and presentations.<ref name="sterling" />
=== Circuit QED === He works with experimentalists Robert Schoelkopf and Michel Devoret on the engineering problem of building a quantum computer,<ref name=":0" /> and on developing "circuit QED" using superconducting electrical circuits.<ref name="prizerecipient">{{cite web |title=2007 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize Recipient |url=http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Steven%20M.%20Girvin&year=2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091011041512/http://www.aps.org:80/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Steven%20M%2E%20Girvin&year=2007 |archive-date=2009-10-11 |access-date=2024-06-30 |website=Prize Recipient |publisher=American Physical Society}}</ref> The group experimentally implemented the first all-electronic quantum processor and executed two-qubit quantum algorithms in 2009.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=DiCarlo |first=L. |last2=Chow |first2=J. M. |last3=Gambetta |first3=J. M. |last4=Bishop |first4=Lev S. |last5=Johnson |first5=B. R. |last6=Schuster |first6=D. I. |last7=Majer |first7=J. |last8=Blais |first8=A. |last9=Frunzio |first9=L. |last10=Girvin |first10=S. M. |last11=Schoelkopf |first11=R. J. |display-authors=3 |date=9 July 2009 |orig-date=June 28 |title=Demonstration of two-qubit algorithms with a superconducting quantum processor |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=460 |issue=7252 |pages=240–244 |doi=10.1038/nature08121|arxiv=0903.2030 }}</ref><ref name="apselect">{{cite web |title=Steven Girvin |url=http://www.aps.org/about/governance/election/steven_girvin.cfm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709111021/http://www.aps.org/about/governance/election/steven_girvin.cfm |archive-date=9 July 2009 |access-date=2024-06-30 |website=Steven Girvin |publisher=American Physical Society}}</ref> Devoret later received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2025 for his earlier work on macroscopic quantum tunneling in superconducting circuits.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-10-07 |title=Yale's Michel H. Devoret wins 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics |url=https://news.yale.edu/2025/10/07/yales-michel-h-devoret-wins-2025-nobel-prize-physics |access-date=2025-02-22 |website=YaleNews |publisher=Yale University |language=en}}</ref>
=== Quantum error correction === In 2023, the Yale group, including Girvin, demonstrated real-time quantum error correction beyond the break-even point for the first time, using a bosonic code in a superconducting cavity. This result, published in ''Nature'', showed that an error-corrected logical qubit could outperform its best physical component, a key milestone for the field of quantum computing.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sivak |first1=V. V. |last2=Eickbusch |first2=A. |last3=Royer |first3=B. |date=April 2023 |title=Real-time quantum error correction beyond break-even |journal=Nature |volume=616 |issue=7955 |pages=50–55 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-05782-6 |pmid=36949196}}</ref>
Girvin and collaborators also proposed and demonstrated a dual-rail cavity qubit architecture, in which quantum information is encoded in the single-photon subspace of two superconducting microwave cavities. This approach allows dominant photon loss errors to be detected and converted into erasure errors, which are easier to correct. The proposal was published in the ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' in 2023,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Teoh |first1=James D. |last2=Winkel |first2=Patrick |last3=Babla |first3=Harshvardhan K. |date=October 2023 |title=Dual-rail encoding with superconducting cavities |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=120 |issue=41 |article-number=e2221736120 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2221736120 |pmc=10576063}}</ref> and the experimental demonstration of erasure-detected logical measurements was published in ''Nature Physics'' in 2024.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chou |first1=Kevin S. |last2=Shemma |first2=Tali |last3=McCarrick |first3=Heather |date=September 2024 |title=A superconducting dual-rail cavity qubit with erasure-detected logical measurements |journal=Nature Physics |volume=20 |pages=1454–1460 |doi=10.1038/s41567-024-02539-4}}</ref>
== Books == Girvin co-edited the book ''The Quantum Hall Effect'', which has been translated into Japanese, Chinese and Russian.<ref name=":0" /> Together with co-author Kun Yang, Girvin published the Cambridge University Press textbook ''Modern Condensed Matter Physics'' in 2019.
== Awards and honors == Girvin, James P. Eisenstein and Allan H. MacDonald won the 2007 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize for their "Fundamental experimental and theoretical research on correlated many-electron states in low dimensional systems".<ref name=prizerecipient />
*George E. Pake Prize, American Physical Society (2026)<!-- sourced from Girvin's LinkedIn announcement; update with APS citation when available --> *Sterling Professor of Physics, Yale University (2024)<ref name="sterling" /> *Hedersdoktor (Honoris Causa Doctorate), Chalmers University of Technology (2017)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Science journalist, geodesist and a physicist named Chalmers honorary doctors of 2017 {{!}} Chalmers|url=https://www.chalmers.se/en/news/Pages/Honorary-doctors-2017.aspx|access-date=2021-05-23|website=www.chalmers.se}}</ref> *Shared the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (2007)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Prize Recipient|url=http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm|access-date=2021-05-23|website=www.aps.org|language=en}}</ref> *Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2007)<ref>{{Citation|title=Lista över ledamöter av Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien|date=2021-04-19|url=https://sv.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lista_%C3%B6ver_ledam%C3%B6ter_av_Kungliga_Vetenskapsakademien&oldid=49142999|work=Wikipedia|language=sv|access-date=2021-05-23}}</ref> *Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007)<ref name="sterling" /> *Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2006)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Steven M. Girvin|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/3001859.html|access-date=2021-05-23|website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> *Eugene Higgins Professorship in Physics, Yale University (2005) *Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004)<ref name="yalepr">{{cite news |last=Emanuel |first=Janet |date=May 1, 2006 |title=Yale Physicist Steven Girvin Named National Academy of Sciences Fellow |url=http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=2151 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212224638/http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=2151 |archive-date=December 12, 2012 |access-date=20 October 2010 |newspaper=Yale office of public affairs and communication}}</ref> *Conde Award for Teaching Excellence in Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Yale University (first recipient, 2003)<ref name=":1" /> *Distinguished Professor, Indiana University (1992)<ref name=":1" /> *Fellow of the American Physical Society (1989)<ref>{{cite web|title=APS Fellows Archive|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=&year=1989&unit_id=&institution=|access-date=3 October 2020|publisher=APS}}</ref> *Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for Superior Federal Service (1983)<ref name=":1" /> *Phi Beta Kappa (Bates College, 1971)<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://girvin.sites.yale.edu/ Girvin's Yale homepage] *[https://physics.yale.edu/people/steven-girvin Yale Department of Physics profile] *[https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZQHLxBcAAAAJ Google Scholar profile] *[https://quantuminstitute.yale.edu/people/steven-girvin Yale Quantum Institute profile]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Girvin, Steven}} Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Scientists from Austin, Texas Category:People from Warren County, New York Category:Yale University faculty Category:Yale Sterling Professors Category:21st-century American physicists Category:Bates College alumni Category:Princeton University alumni Category:University of Maine alumni Category:Indiana University faculty Category:Scientists from New York (state) Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Category:Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners