Born in 1968 in Palo Alto, California, USA, Morgan Mitchell earned his PhD in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999 with a thesis on the quantum optics of photon-photon interactions. In the group of Serge Haroche and Jean-Michel Raimond in Paris he worked on experimental cavity quantum electrodynamics with cold atoms. At Reed College he developed ultra-low power entangled photon sources, and in the group of Aephraim Steingberg in Toronto he demonstrated the first multi-photon NooN states and quantum process tomography. In 2004 he joined ICFO as a Junior Group Leader. His group "atomic quantum optics" uses hot, cold, and ultra-cold atoms to study light-matter interactions at the most fundamental, quantum mechanical level. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2011, an ERC Proof-of-Concept Grant in 2016, and has been recognized with a Vanguardia de la Ciencia award in 2012, Ehrenfest Prize and Kavli Publication Prize in 2016.

Research interests

Morgan Mitchell leads the atomic quantum optics group at ICFO, devoted to quantum optics and atomic physics for quantum technology and quantum foundations. The group has experimental programmes in individual quantum systems (single neutral atoms), ultracold atoms (spinor Bose-Einstein condensates), high-density warm atomic ensembles, squeezed light, and entangled photons. We develop quantum aspects of light-matter interactions, e.g. quantum non-demolition measurement, for application in sensing, entanglement generation, and foundations of physics. The quantum optics of optical magnetometers, currently the best sensors for low-frequency magnetic fields, is of particular interest. Spin-offs from this research include extremely fast, high-quality quantum random number generators.