CQT Reseach Fellow named an Outstanding Referee

Martin Kiffner is recognised by the American Physical Society for services to peer review.

CQT Research Fellow Martin Kiffner has been named an "Outstanding Referee" by the American Physical Society (APS). Starting in 2008, the society has given the award to scientists who have been "exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication". The society estimates it has 60,000 currently active reviewers; only 142 received the lifetime Outstanding Referee award in 2013.

Martin (pictured right) joined CQT in January 2012. He had been previously a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford and retains a visiting appointment there, working on a project on Rydberg atoms with CQT Principal Investigator Wenhui Li and Dieter Jaksch, a Professor in Oxford and Visiting Research Professor at CQT. Martin's expertise encompasses theoretical quantum optics and quantum many-body physics.

On receiving the APS award, Martin says "I feel very honoured to receive this distinction at a rather early stage of my career." He reviews on average two papers per month, one being for an APS journal. "I always try to give good reasons for my decisions and constructive comments improving the quality of the manuscript," he says.

Martin is not the first CQTian to be named an APS Outstanding Referee. Previous recipients of the award include Dieter, Markus Grassl, a Senior Research Fellow, and Berge Englert, a Principal Investigator at CQT and Professor in the Department of Physics at NUS.