Scott Awarded Physics Teaching Award

Ryan Scott, a 2016 alumnus of Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) College of Science, has been recognized by the American Association of Physics Teachers and the Advanced Laboratory Physics Association for his work in RIT's School of Physics and Astronomy.

Scott, who earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from RIT, won the award for developing a new experiment for the institute’s upper-level undergraduate physics lab. The award also recognizes Scott's faculty advisers Edwin Hach III, an assistant professor of physics, and Stefan Preble, an associate professor of microsystems engineering and electrical and microelectronic engineering.

Scott will receive his award, along with a $4,000 prize, at the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, in July. He will also present his research at an invited talk.

Scott's experiment demonstrates fundamental quantum mechanics by replicating the Hong-Ou Mandel effect to study the behavior of photons. The experiment illustrates superposition and entanglement, fundamental quantum mechanical effects that capture two photons, as a wave and a particle, with one influencing the other at a distance.

"I worked in a condensed matter lab on theoretical modeling for simple photonics devices and wrote software to mathematically model a laser deforming silicon crystals," Scott said. "I especially appreciated so many professors being excited to work with students."

Scott currently develops and implements software at Epic Systems Corp. in Madison, Wis. He is originally from Shrewsbury, Mass.