ANN ARBOR, Mich., — Two researchers from the University of Michigan were named to the prestigious Scientific American 50, a special yearly feature article in Scientific American that honors 50 individuals, groups, teams companies or organizations whose accomplishments in research, business or policymaking during 2005-2006 demonstrate outstanding technological leadership.

The two winners from U-M are Jessy Grizzle, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who won for his contribution to robotics, and Christopher Monroe, professor in the Department of Physics, who won for his research contribution to quantum computing.

Grizzle and his team developed a mathematical algorithm to achieve highly dynamic and stable walking and running motions, and have tested it on the two legged bipedal robot called RABBIT. Working with French scientists who built the robot, Grizzle and his team were able to get RABBIT to walk and to run. RABBIT is different from other robots because it doesn’t have large feet to balance on to remain upright. Rather, the control algorithm that Grizzle and his team developed actually gives RABBIT the ability to balance like a human. The research has promising applications in the field of smart prosthetics capable of adapting to the user, rather than the reverse.

” It is exciting to see that basic research done in the tight confines of the ivory tower is grabbing the imagination of the general public,” Grizzle said. ” It’s gratifying to know that the public is genuinely interested in our work and its potential applications.”

Monroe and his team are working hard to make quantum computers a reality. These super-fast machines use isolated atoms to store information and could perform certain calculations hundreds of times faster than existing technology. Monroe and his team developed a microchip that traps and holds individual atoms in their quantum states and uses laser beams to manipulate the atom. The chip is easily scalable, and may be the answer to one of the most vexing problems in quantum computing: how to store and manipulate huge numbers of individual atoms used to store information.

” Quantum computing is a very speculative field, not without controversy on some of its promises.” Monroe said. ” But quantum physics has always been controversial, and I believe its inherent weirdness is what makes it appealing to the general public and readers of Scientific American. I am delighted that SA has highlighted our development of ‘atom chips’ that might be used as future quantum computers, and I am very lucky to have an excellent group of researchers — particularly graduate student Daniel Stick ” who made this possible.”

The Scientific American 50 appears in the magazine’s December issue which will be on newsstands on Nov. 21. See the complete list at www.sciam.com.

The magazine’s board of editors, with the help of outside advisors, selects the winners.

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