Patrick Rall: A passion for entanglement
For senior Patrick Rall, a native of Munich, Germany, the summer offers one of the year's few chances to visit home. But for the last two summers, Rall, a Caltech physics major, has been spending his summers on campus, drawn by another opportunity—the chance to conduct cutting-edge research while being mentored by John Preskill, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, as part of the Institute's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program. Last year, Rall worked in the laser lab of Assistant Professor of Physics David Hsieh on a condensed matter physics experiment. This summer, he switched his attention to quantum information science, a new field that seeks to exploit quantum mechanical effects to create next-generation computers that will be faster and more secure than those currently available.