Sankar Das Sarma

Sankar Das Sarma
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Name	Sankar Das Sarma
Birth date	1956
Birth place	Calcutta, India
Nationality	Indian American
Fields	Condensed matter physics, quantum information, topological phases
Workplaces	University of Maryland, University of California, Santa Barbara, General Electric Research Laboratory
Alma mater	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, University of California, San Diego
Doctoral advisor	Gordon Baym
Known for	Semiconductor physics, quantum Hall effect, topological quantum computation, Majorana fermions
Awards	Oliver E. Buckley Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, Fellow of the American Physical Society

Sankar Das Sarma is a theoretical condensed matter physicist known for work on low-dimensional semiconductor systems, the quantum Hall effect, and proposals for topological quantum computation. He has held faculty positions in major American research universities and collaborated widely with experimentalists and theorists across institutions, contributing to advances in semiconductor heterostructures, quantum Hall effect, and topological insulator research. His publications bridge foundational topics in statistical mechanics, many-body theory, and emerging fields such as topological quantum computation and Majorana fermion platforms.

Early life and education

Born in Calcutta, Sarma completed undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur before pursuing graduate work at the University of California, San Diego under advisor Gordon Baym. His doctoral training included interactions with researchers at the Bell Labs era and exposure to topics influenced by work at IBM Research and AT&T Bell Laboratories. During his formative years he engaged with concepts developed by figures such as Philip W. Anderson, John Bardeen, Walter Kohn, Leo Kadanoff, and Nicolas Mott, situating his education at the intersection of theoretical frameworks from quantum mechanics, solid state physics, and many-body physics.

Academic career and positions

Sarma has held faculty appointments at the University of Maryland, College Park and visiting positions at institutions including University of California, Santa Barbara, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Princeton University. He has collaborated with experimental groups at Bell Labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and National Institute of Standards and Technology. Administrative and editorial roles connected him to journals and societies such as the American Physical Society, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and publishing houses like Springer and Elsevier through editorships and advisory boards.

Research contributions and notable work

Sarma's research spans theoretical analysis of two-dimensional electron gas systems, disorder effects formulated in contexts developed by P. W. Anderson, the interplay of interactions pioneered by Lev Landau and L. D. Landau, and mesoscopic phenomena connected to experiments at Bell Labs. He contributed to the theoretical understanding of the integer quantum Hall effect and the fractional quantum Hall effect building on frameworks of Robert B. Laughlin and Horst L. Störmer, and addressed composite fermion ideas related to Jainendra Jain. In semiconductor physics he analyzed transport in GaAs heterostructures and silicon devices, engaging with techniques found in density functional theory work influenced by Walter Kohn and excitation concepts connected to Philip W. Anderson. Sarma is widely known for proposing and analyzing solid-state platforms for Majorana fermions and topological superconductivity that informed proposals for topological quantum computation advocated by researchers such as Alexei Kitaev and Chetan Nayak. His theoretical models have been applied to systems studied at Microsoft Station Q, UCSB groups led by David Awschalom and Charles M. Marcus, and experimental programs at UCSB and Stanford University. He has published influential reviews synthesizing work related to topological insulators described by Charles L. Kane and Eugene Mele, interacting electron systems considered by J. Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless, and computational proposals connecting to Peter Shor and Seth Lloyd-style quantum information ideas.

Awards and honors

Sarma's distinctions include the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize from the American Physical Society, a Guggenheim Fellowship, fellowship in the American Physical Society, and recognition by national bodies such as the National Academy of Sciences-adjacent awards and university-level endowed chairs. His work has been cited in citation indices compiled by organizations like Institute for Scientific Information and recognized in conference honors at venues including the International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors, March Meeting of the APS, and symposia sponsored by SPIE and IEEE.

Mentorship and teaching

Throughout his career Sarma has supervised doctoral and postdoctoral researchers who took positions at institutions such as Harvard University, MIT, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, California Institute of Technology, Yale University, Cornell University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Toronto, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He taught courses aligned with curricula influenced by textbooks from authors like Charles Kittel, Ashcroft and Mermin (linked via authors Neil Ashcroft and N. David Mermin), and Michael Tinkham, and contributed to graduate programs funded through grants from the National Science Foundation and collaborations with the Department of Energy national laboratories. His mentorship fostered careers spanning academia, industry positions at Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and national labs including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Personal life and legacy

Sarma's legacy includes a body of theoretical work that influenced experimental searches for exotic quasiparticles and architectures for quantum computing pursued by companies such as Google Quantum AI and consortia including Quantum Information Science initiatives. He has been involved in outreach and professional service with societies like the American Association for the Advancement of Science and international collaborations with institutions such as CERN and Max Planck Society. His students and collaborators continue research at centers like Microsoft Research, Station Q, Perimeter Institute, and Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, ensuring his influence on contemporary condensed matter and quantum information science.

Category:Living people Category:American physicists Category:Condensed matter physicists