Sense of awe led alum to physics
Ben Chapman (PhDPhys'17)
Ben Chapman (PhDPhys鈥17) never had a master plan to be a physicist, but now he鈥檚 a Principal Quantum Hardware Manager at Microsoft.听
Chapman says what he loves most about physics is 鈥渢he sense of awe that comes from connecting with length, time, and energy scales that are far from the meters, seconds, and joules of the human experience.鈥澨听
He majored in math and physics at Dartmouth College because he enjoyed the coursework. Following that sense of awe, after college he got a job in a physics lab and his boss encouraged him to apply to PhD programs. He recalls it wasn鈥檛 straightforward 鈥揵ecause he didn鈥檛 take a conventional path to graduate school.听
A world-class program in 麻豆影院
鈥淚 chose CU because it鈥檚 in 麻豆影院 and the program is world-class. He added 鈥渋t was a great decision.鈥
Chapman thrived at CU and made a lasting impact.
He completed his thesis on superconducting quantum circuits with Professor and JILA Fellow Konrad Lehnert, which he added was an incredible opportunity. 鈥淚 feel so incredibly fortunate for the chance to have worked with Konrad,鈥 Chapman said.听
Chapman was also one of the original organizers of CU-Prime, a student-led organization aimed at building community and supporting undergraduates in physics. The group was formed in 2013 and is still flourishing, offering biweekly research talks, a 1-credit hour class for first-year undergraduate students, and a mentorship program.
Building a quantum computer
After finishing his PhD, Chapman spent four years as a postdoc at Yale with Professor Rob Schoelkopf before joining Microsoft.
In his current role, he manages a small team who develop the readout hardware for Microsoft鈥檚 quantum computer. He likens it to working as a postdoc; driving multiple projects, keeping the team motivated and excited, and helping them see how their efforts are advancing longer-term goals.
With many major tech companies racing to build a quantum computer, the job is high stakes, and Chapman has his sights set on the ultimate goal. 鈥淚 want to build a rocket ship that goes to the moon 鈥 not a literal one 鈥 but the quantum computing version of that.鈥
Trusting the process
Professor and JILA Fellow Konrad Lehnert and听Ben Chapman听
at his thesis defense.
Chapman said one of his biggest career lessons so far has been to trust the process of 鈥榙oing鈥 physics. 鈥淓ven difficult problems can yield answers with persistence. It took me a while to learn that,鈥 he said. At early stages of his career, he wondered 鈥渉ow will I have an idea that no one else has had before?鈥
鈥淭hat feeling remained for many years through college and the beginning of graduate school,鈥 he added. 鈥淏ut as you keep doing it, it gets easier and things that used to seem impossible become an everyday thing. You get better at plying the craft.鈥
He recalled a class he took at CU from Professor Noah Finkelstein on Teaching and Learning Physics, which introduced him to concepts in education like impostor syndrome and growth mindset. 鈥淏eing able to have conversations around these topics and learn the vocabulary was very useful to me.鈥
Throughout his education and so far into his career, Chapman has leaned in to being comfortable with uncertainty. Through each phase, he鈥檚 trusting the process and holding on to the sense of awe that first drew him in.听听