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STEM Faculty

Meet the people who make up STEM Faculty.

Calum MacCormick

Calum MacCormick

Lecturer In Physics

physical-sciences

Professional biography

I began my research career at the University of Sussex where I performed experiments on Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) for my DPhil. After Sussex, I continued my BEC research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where I helped develop a useful optical trapping technique, especially suited to dynamic experiments with BEC. I came to the Open University in 2008 to work with Silvia Bergamini on her new ultra-cold Rydberg atoms project. I continue to work on Rydberg atoms - at present we are trying to further cool our optically trapped atoms using a technique known as "gray molasses", in which promises to achieve very cold final temperatures.

Teaching interests

Most of my OU teaching concerns Quantum mechanics, and I was excited to introduce the topic of quantum computing to our 3rd level teaching (SM380 Quantum Physics). I am presently chairing our new masters level course, SM880, now in it's second year of presentation.

Latest publications

Displaying 10 of 16 publications

  • Leese, T., Patrick, S., Bergamini, S. and MacCormick, C., 2026, ‘Efficient Λ-enhanced gray molasses using an electromagnetically-induced-transparency-based laser locking scheme’, Physical Review A, 113, https://oro.open.ac.uk/106754/.
  • Johnson, C., Drummond, N. D., Hague, J. P. and MacCormick, C., 2026, ‘Quantum Monte Carlo study of low-dimensional Fermi fluids of dipolar atoms’, Physical Review A, 113, https://oro.open.ac.uk/109111/.
  • Hague, J. P., Petit, L. and MacCormick, C., 2021, ‘Analytic expressions for Hubbard models with arbitrary structures in programmable optical lattices’, Physical Review A, 104(5), https://oro.open.ac.uk/80256/.
  • Hague, J., MacCormick, C. and Kornilovitch, P., 2020, ‘Cold-atom quantum simulator to explore pairing, condensation, and pseudogaps in extended Hubbard-Holstein models’, Physical Review A, 102(3), https://oro.open.ac.uk/72486/.
  • Hague, J. P. and MacCormick, C., 2017, ‘Implementation strategies for multiband quantum simulators of real materials’, Physical Review A, 95(3), https://oro.open.ac.uk/49083/.
  • Krzyzanowska, K., Copley-May, M., Romain, R., MacCormick, C. and Bergamini, S., 2017, ‘Quantum-enhanced protocols with mixed states using cold atoms in dipole traps’, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 793(1), https://oro.open.ac.uk/48792/.
  • MacCormick, C., Bergamini, S., Mansell, C., Cable, H. and Modi, K., 2016, ‘Supraclassical measurement using single-atom control of an atomic ensemble’, Physical Review A, 93(9), https://oro.open.ac.uk/45333/.
  • Beterov, I. I., Saffman, M., Zhukov, V. P., Tretyakov, D. B., Entin, V. M., Yakshina, E. A., Ryabtsev, I. I., Mansell, C. W., MacCormick, C., Bergamini, S. and Fedoruk, M. P., 2014, ‘Coherent control of mesoscopic atomic ensembles for quantum information’, Laser Physics, 24(7), https://oro.open.ac.uk/40496/.
  • Hague, J. P., Downes, S., MacCormick, C. and Kornilovitch, P. E., 2014, ‘Cold Rydberg atoms for quantum simulation of exotic condensed matter interactions’, Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism, 27(4), pp. 937–940., https://oro.open.ac.uk/39221/.
  • Murray, N. J., Burt, D. J., Holland, A. D., Stefanov, K. D., Gow, J. P. D., MacCormick, C., Dryer, B. J. and Allanwood, E. A. H., 2013, ‘Multi-level parallel clocking of CCDs for: improving charge transfer efficiency, clearing persistence, clocked anti-blooming, and generating low-noise backgrounds for pumping’, in UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts VI, 25-26 Aug 2013, San Diego., https://oro.open.ac.uk/39059/.