Dr. Nithya Arunkumar, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

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Nithya Arunkumar is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics pursuing research in the areas of quantum sensing using Nitrogen-vacancy centers.  She earned her Ph.D. in atomic physics and quantum optics from North Carolina State University in 2018, where she conducted the experiments on optically controlling scattering interactions in ultracold atoms using electromagnetically induced transparency. She also developed an optical Vernier for probing momentum dependent scattering interactions in ultracold atoms and created a quantum “sandwich” of resonantly and weakly interacting atoms. She earned her MS (physics) from University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2010, specializing in the terahertz waveguides under the supervision of Dr. Robert Giles. She also holds an undergraduate degree in physics from Madras University in Chennai, India.