Champions of the Mind: Doctor Earl Rapport

Doctor Earl Rapport is the chief scientist at ScientificChess. He got his PhD. in Physics from Australian National University, and played a key role in the development of the ScientificChess organization. Prior to joining us here atScientificChess, he has been a professor in a number of world renowned universities from MIT to Cambridge, and also spent time at IBM research in the early 1990s. Everyone from the last millenium can seem ancient nowdays, but it really wasn't that long ago. Not many in this generation can comprehend what goes on inside his large head.

His pear shaped head has often been mentioned in literature as symbolizing the quantum bell. The interesting facial hair pattern with the hair, moustache, and beard respresent the three cities of the quantum bell with Geneva on the top. This of course, is still the largest quantum bell in the world.

Unless, you know something about obscure things in physics like the scholar in an examination, System No. 1. most of your conversations with him can often fly off the top of your head. Mostly, he just prefers to sleep these days. One day, when we can get a dream reader, it would be interesting to look inside his head, and see what he is dreaming of. It is expected with the ongoing advancements in quantum computing at ScientificChess, that the dream reader may not be so far away as it may seem to the unaware men and women outside the organization.

1993 - IBM's Stadium Corral of Iron Atoms on Copper -- Intrigued with the possibility of observing "Quantum Chaos," the artists -- IBM "quantum mechanics" Michael Crommie, Chris Lutz and Don Eigler -- constructed a stadium shaped Quantum Corral in the hope of observing a signature of Quantum Chaos known as "scarring." Scarring of the electron wave patterns would lead to a build-up of waves along the classically periodic orbits of the stadium. No scarring was observed. The reason is quantum corrals are akin to any resonant structure, for instance, a bell. But this "quantum" bell doesn't ring very well, in fact it makes more of a thud than a ring.