Richard Fletcher

Richard J. Fletcher is an Assistant Professor of Physics at MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) and a core member of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms. His research focuses on synthesizing exotic quantum matter using ultracold atomic gases, particularly exploring collective quantum behavior under precise control of trapping geometries and artificial gauge fields. He has pioneered studies on superfluidity, quantum Hall analogues in neutral systems, and strongly correlated quantum states.

Education
- B.Sc. Physics, University of Cambridge (2010)
- Ph.D. Physics, University of Cambridge (2016) under Zoran Hadzibabic
- Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT (2016-2020) with Martin Zwierlein

Research Interests
- Ultracold quantum gases
- Artificial magnetic fields and synthetic dimensions
- Low-dimensional quantum systems
- Quantum Hall physics in neutral systems
- Bose-Einstein condensation dynamics
- Chiral edge transport in superfluids

Grants & Awards
- 2023 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering
- 2022 AFOSR Young Investigator Award
- 2016 MIT Pappalardo Fellowship
- NSF grants (2021, 2022)

Labs & Teams
- Fletcher Lab at MIT RLE
- Collaborations with Martin Zwierlein's group and Harvard-MIT CUA