Rate My Professor John Saunders

John Saunders is Professor of Low Temperature Physics in the Department of Physics at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he directs the London Low Temperature Laboratory, part of the Centre for Advanced Quantum Science and Technology. He earned his BA in Physics from New College, Oxford University in 1974. He completed his D.Phil. at the University of Sussex in 1978 under the supervision of Douglas Brewer, researching superfluid phases of 3He via nuclear adiabatic demagnetization. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University with Robert Richardson from 1978 to 1981, he served as a temporary lecturer at Bedford College, University of London in 1981, initiating ultrasonic spectroscopy studies of superfluid 3He. Awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 1983, he focused on order parameter collective modes of superfluid 3He. He joined Royal Holloway in 1986, founding the low temperature laboratory and developing successive ultralow temperature platforms: ND1 (1986) for helium films modeling quantum materials, ND2 (2000) for topological superfluid 3He, ND3 (2010) for solid-state quantum materials, and ND4 (2020) for cryogen-free microkelvin access and quantum test-beds.

Saunders has pioneered techniques including current sensing noise thermometry, DC SQUID NMR, and SQUID-based transport measurements. His research explores topological superfluid 3He in nanoscale confinement, atomically layered helium films as quantum material models, and quantum sensors, with applications to quantum technologies, dark matter searches, and early universe phase transitions. Notable publications include 'Evidence for a Mott-Hubbard Transition in a Two-Dimensional Fluid Monolayer' (Physical Review Letters, 2003), 'Bilayer 3He: a simple two-dimensional heavy-fermion system with quantum criticality' (Science, 2007), 'Phase diagram of the topological superfluid 3He confined in a nanoscale slab geometry' (Science, 2013), and 'Chiral Superfluid Helium-3 in the Quasi-Two-Dimensional Limit' (Physical Review Letters, 2025). He received the 2015 Institute of Physics Mott Medal for ground-breaking ultra-low temperature physics studies and the 2025 Fritz London Memorial Prize for pioneering work on topological and strongly correlated quantum fluids and solids. Leadership roles include Chairman of IUPAP Commission C5 (2011-2017), SQMS advisory board member (2020-2023), and executive board member of the European Microkelvin Platform since 2014.