#SoCaltech: Scott Cushing

“I always loved building mechanical things, and my grandmother and my parents, anytime something broke, they gave it to me because I loved fixing things like that. … Going to college, I didn't know what I was going to do. I had some thoughts that I was going to be a mechanical engineer. But then, I was in a physics laboratory, and they showed me a laser, and I was like, ‘Shut down everything. That is going to be my career!’ I love lasers though. Honestly, it still gives me the same joy, sitting there cranking bolts on my vacuum chamber, as it did back in the day exploring how to do a car engine swap. ... I'm in chemistry because I'm what's called a physical chemist: the balance between a chemist and a physicist. ... The Caltech chemistry department has a rich legacy of building instrumentation. They don't care how quickly you produce science; they just want you to make good science. And when you do instrumentation building, you really need that support because it takes me more than three years to build a new scientific instrument.”

Scott K. Cushing, assistant professor of chemistry, delivered the May 11 Watson Lecture, in which he discussed quantum entanglement and what we can learn about both small and somewhat larger objects when they are forced to interact with entangled photons.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.