Rate My Professor Karen Sauer

Karen L. Sauer is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University. She earned a BA in Physics from Cornell University in 1992 and a PhD in Atomic Physics from Princeton University in 1998. Following her PhD, she was a Chateaubriand Postdoctoral Fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, from 1998 to 2000, studying dipolar field effects in highly magnetized fluids with the Quantum Fluids group at the Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel. From 2000 to 2002, she held an NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., researching three-frequency nuclear quadrupole resonance. Dr. Sauer joined George Mason University in September 2002 and currently serves as a Professor.

Dr. Sauer's research focuses on zero- and low-field magnetic resonance phenomena, including quantum magnetometers and investigations of novel materials such as iron-based superconductors. She directs the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory (MRL), exploring spin dynamics in nuclear quadrupole resonance and optically pumped atoms, reducing noise to fundamental limits, and applying low-field magnetic resonance for analytical purposes and contraband detection. Her research has received significant funding, including a National Science Foundation grant (award #1711118, 2017-2020) for quantum magnetometers enabling rapid identification of resonance frequencies in explosives, pharmaceuticals, and other substances, and a US Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate grant (via MTEQ #W909MY-12-D0008/0024, 2017-2020) for robust interference rejection in NQR detection of explosives. She teaches a broad range of undergraduate and graduate physics courses, emphasizing experimental physics, electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics. Selected publications include Jaafar N. Ansari, Karen L. Sauer, and James K. Glasbrenner, "The Predictive Power of Different Projector-Augmented Wave Potentials for Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance", Crystals 9, 507 (2019); Robert J. Cooper et al., "RF atomic magnetometer array with over 40 dB interference suppression using electron spin resonance", Journal of Magnetic Resonance 296, 36 (2018); Robert J. Cooper et al., "Improving the design of atomic magnetometer arrays for RF interference mitigation in NQR detection of explosives", Proc. SPIE 10182, 1018208 (2017); and Robert J. Cooper et al., "Atomic Magnetometer Multisensor Array for rf Interference Mitigation and Unshielded Detection of Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance", Phys. Rev. Applied 6, 064014 (2016).