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Mark Saffman

Mark Saffman is the Johannes Rydberg Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Chief Scientist for Quantum Information at Infleqtion. From 2019-2026 he was the Director of the Wisconsin Quantum Institute. He is known for his work on neutral-atom quantum computing using Rydberg interactions. In 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for his contributions to atomic and optical physics , and in 2014 he was named a Fellow of Optica for his contributions to neutral-atom quantum computing with Rydberg-state interactions . In 2025, he was co-awarded the 9th John Stewart Bell Prize for pioneering contributions to quantum simulation and quantum computing with neutral atoms. He is also the recipient of the 2026 Norman F. Ramsey Prize, awarded for outstanding contributions to atomic, molecular, and optical physics .

Education and career
Saffman earned a BSc in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1981 and a PhD in physics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1994. After positions in industry and at Risø National Laboratory in Denmark, he joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1999, where he became associate professor in 2004 and full professor in 2007. == Research ==
Research
Saffman’s research is in atomic physics, quantum optics, and quantum information processing with neutral atoms, especially using the Rydberg blockade mechanism to implement entangling quantum gates. His group reported deterministic entanglement of two neutral atoms via Rydberg blockade and a neutral-atom CNOT gate in 2010. == Honors and awards ==
Honors and awards
Norman F. Ramsey Prize (APS), 2026. • 9th John Stewart Bell Prize, 2025 • WARF Professorship (UW–Madison), 2022. • Fellow, Optica (class of 2014). • Fellow, American Physical Society (2008). • Sloan Research Fellowship, (2001) == Selected publications ==
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