Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Grad Programs

[Moonshine]

Hello everybody,

I currently have a degree in chemistry and I am working on another in physics. I plan on going to grad school when I finish the second degree. That will probably be in four years or so. I'm working full time for the next couple of years while taking classes and then I will pursue the physics degree full-time (bills, ugh).

I'm trying to find out what the best graduate programs in atomic, molecular, and optical physics programs are, but I haven't been able to find all that much. I just thought somebody may be able to point me in the right direction.

Also, if anyone wants to chime in with some major problems that are currently being tackled by the AMO community, feel free to do so. Book recommendations would be cool too!

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[SonOfOle]

Bose-Einstein condensation and the study of ultracold gases and molecules are one of the hottest AMO fields right now (and happens to be what I'm pursuing).

JILA/University of Colorado-Boulder is big in AMO.

At Purdue, we're just getting an ultracold atoms and molecules collaboration going between two groups.

Georgia Tech, MIT (esp. Ketterle), Rice (esp. Hulet), and UConn come to mind as places I've been reading a bunch of papers out of. Depends partially if you want to do theory or experiment too, though it may be too early to tell.