Rate My Professor Amita Deb

Dr. Amita Deb serves as an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Physics within the Division of Sciences at the University of Otago. Deb earned a doctorate in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford. After a short period of employment in the United States, Deb joined the Department of Physics at the University of Otago as a member of the Light and Matter Group, holding the position of Senior Research Fellow. Deb also serves as Assistant Professor in Experimental Cold Atoms Physics at the University of Birmingham since 2021.

Deb is an experimental physicist specialising in atomic, molecular, and optical physics, with a focus on quantum physics and quantum technologies. Deb's research centres on ultracold atomic gases, particularly Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases, examining atom-atom interactions and atom-light interactions at a fundamental level. By utilising Rydberg atoms in high electronic states, Deb leverages strong interactions and quantum optical nonlinearities for applications in quantum simulations, quantum optics, quantum computing, quantum-enhanced sensing, photonics, RF communication, and electromagnetic sensing. In collaboration with Professor Niels Kjærgaard, Deb developed a world-first optical antenna and quantum radio technology, resulting in a United States patent and several other patents.

Deb's scholarly output appears in leading journals, including 'Observation of Pauli blocking in light scattering from quantum degenerate fermions' (Science, 2021), 'Data capacity scaling of a distributed Rydberg atomic receiver array' (Journal of Applied Physics, 2021), 'Distant RF field sensing with a passive Rydberg-atomic transducer' (Applied Physics Letters, 2023), 'Polarization-insensitive microwave electrometry using Rydberg atoms' (Physical Review Applied, 2024), and 'Observation of Fermi acceleration with cold atoms' (Physical Review Letters, 2025). Notable accolades include selection for Physics World's Top 10 Physics Discoveries of 2021, victory in the 2018 Otago Innovation Proof of Concept competition for an imaging project, and a keynote presentation at the New Zealand Institute of Physics Conference 2023.