Congratulations to Dr. Jason Kestner, the recipient of the 2018 Carl S. Weber Excellence in Teaching Award.  Dr. Kestner is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan in 2009, where he also completed an elective teacher training program and was recognized as the 2004 Outstanding First-Year Graduate Instructor. After doing postdoctoral research at the University of Maryland, College Park, he joined the faculty of UMBC in 2012. Dr. Kestner has taught at all levels at UMBC, from an introductory physics discussion section to multiple upper division undergraduate courses and graduate courses. He is also quite active in mentoring student researchers at all levels, which has resulted in several peer-reviewed papers with UMBC students as first authors.

Dr. Kestner's research group focuses on developing control theory for physical devices that usefully exploit the strange features of quantum mechanics. A prominent example is a quantum computer, which could solve a certain important class of problems exponentially faster than any computer based on the current classical bit model. In particular, Dr. Kestner's group calculates how to precisely control the spin state of electrons in a variety of nanoscale semiconductor quantum dot structures despite the noisy environment in which the electrons reside.

Photo:  Dr. Kestner with Mrs. Catherine Weber at the CNMS Awards and Recognition Day at UMBC on May 4, 2018. 
(Photographer:  Tim Ford,  CNMS Research Graphics https://researchgraphics.umbc.edu/).