Nick Rivera will join the School of Applied and Engineering Physics as an assistant professor in in July, 2025, to pursue research and teaching in the fields of optical physics, condensed matter and physics, nanotechnology, and quantum information science. At Cornell, the Rivera Lab will focus on developing novel light sources at new frequencies using nonlinear effects, as well as developing and applying quantum light sources for sensitive measurements. Identifying new fundamental effects in light-matter interaction and translating these new effects into new devices and new applications are central to a wide range of technologies and applications such as lasers, sensors, materials characterization, optical communication, computing, and medical imaging.
“Cornell’s School of Applied and Engineering Physics had been on my radar for a while,” said Rivera. “In my home field of optical physics, I had been actively following work coming out of several AEP labs. Then, actually visiting and seeing the great work being done in condensed matter physics, biophysics, and electron microscopy, for example, made a strong impression on me.” Rivera’s lab will work on optical physics broadly, and do both theoretical and experimental work. In fact, the interaction between theory and experiment is a basic feature of his work. Developing first-principles computational methods to accurately predict the results of experiments is also important to him. “We have a strong track-record of developing models that both closely track experiments and predict new effects,” he said.
Although his teaching schedule for the year has not been finalized, Rivera will start teaching AEP4230 (Statistical Thermodynamics) in the Fall semester. He said he’s excited to teach this course because it is a very important and foundational subject, one that is characterized by simple yet subtle ideas with profoundly far-reaching implications for understanding the universe.
Nick earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his dissertation focused on light-matter interactions in nanophotonic structures. From there, he completed a post-doc at Harvard University as a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. His research focused on developing sources of quantum light such as squeezed states, where there is less uncertainty in one direction compared to a standard coherent state, enabling more precise measurements in that direction.
Most recently, he has been working on experiments with collaborators to better understand how quantum fluctuations limit the performance of lasers. They have developed a new theoretical framework to describe the impact of quantum noise in complex laser systems, and developed experiments to not only validate this theoretical framework but also present a way to control quantum noise in lasers, which can potentially open up a range of new applications in sensing, optical communications, and demanding fundamental science experiments with high-power lasers. This work was submitted to the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), hosted by the Optica (formerly Optical Society of America), and Rivera was honored with the Tingye Li Innovation Prize, which is “presented to an early-career professional who has demonstrated innovative ideas in their accepted paper to CLEO, the premier conference for lasers and electo-optics.”
Rivera is looking forward to joining his colleagues in Applied and Engineering Physics and living in the Finger Lakes region. “Over the last couple years, I’ve developed considerable interest in—and some basic knowledge about—wine,” he said. “It feels pretty fortuitous that I’ll be starting a faculty position in one of the largest wine-growing regions in the United States!”