Kater Murch

Kater Murch is a Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for Quantum Leaps at Washington University in St. Louis. He holds the Charles M. Hohenberg Professorship of Physics and leads research in quantum mechanics, focusing on superconducting quantum circuits, quantum measurement, and quantum thermodynamics. His work addresses foundational questions in quantum mechanics, including coherence preservation, many-body state preparation, and measurement-induced effects.

Education: BA in Physics from Reed College (2002), PhD from UC Berkeley (2007, advised by Dan Stamper-Kurn), and postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley with Irfan Siddiqi. Joined Washington University in 2014.

Research Interests: Superconducting qubits, quantum control, quantum thermodynamics, and the interplay between quantum systems and their environments. His group uses advanced fabrication techniques to study decoherence, quantum foundations, and novel qubit platforms like solid neon-based systems.

Notable Achievements: 2018 Cottrell Scholar Award, NSF CAREER Award, and Sloan Fellowship. His lab’s work has advanced quantum sensing, entanglement dynamics, and non-Markovian processes.

Advising & Grants: Advised PhD students including Jonathan Monroe and Mahdi Naghiloo. Active in securing grants from NSF and the Research Corporation. Courses taught include Introduction to Quantum Physics (Physics 217).

Labs/Teams: Murch Lab focuses on experimental quantum physics, with recent breakthroughs in electron-on-neon qubits and time-crystalline systems. Collaborations span quantum engineering and foundational theory.