BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY
ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING
DR. BERNARD YURKE, BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY
What’s exciting about Frenkel excitons?
ABSTRACT
The packet of energy that is absorbed when a molecule is
put into an excited energy state exhibits particle-like behavior and
can propagate from one molecule to another. This propagation can
proceed in a coherent wave-like manner. I will describe how excitons
might be used to perform high-speed information processing and even
quantum computing at the molecular scale. I will also describe work
underway at BSU to create exciton-based information-processing
elements via DNA-based self-assembly.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Bernard Yurke did his first two years of undergraduate work at Boise State
University, back when it was Boise State College. He received his BS and
MA degrees in physics from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1982 he
received his Ph.D. from Cornell University for experimental work in lowtemperature physics. As a research physicist at Bell Laboratories he
worked in variety of fields, including quantum optics, condensed matter,
biophysics, and MEMS. He became a Distinguished Member of Technical
Staff at Bell Laboratories and a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the
American Physical Society, and the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. He received the Max Born Award from the
Optical Society of America for his work in quantum optics and the Tulip
Award from the International Society for Nanoscale Science, Computing
and Engineering for his work in DNA nanotechnology. He is now a
Distinguished Research Fellow at Boise State University. His current
research interests include DNA-based nanodevices and materials.
ECE SEMINAR: OCT. 9TH AT NOON IN MEC 114