John Kitching (physicist)

John Kitching (born July 28, 1968) is a British–Canadian–American physicist and inventor, and a fellow and group leader at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His research focuses on the development of compact "chip-scale" devices such as atomic clocks and magnetometers.

Early life and education
Kitching was born in Chester, UK, to a physicist father and educator mother. His family emigrated to Canada when he was very young and he went to elementary and middle school in Edmonton, Alberta. He moved to Vancouver, BC, when he was 15 years old and attended Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, winning the Governor General's Bronze Medal. He obtained his undergraduate degree in physics at McGill university in 1990, receiving the Governor General's Silver Medal for achieving the highest academic standing in the university that year. He completed his PhD in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1995 under the supervision of Amnon Yariv.

Career and research
Kitching's research focuses on the development of compact devices and instruments that combine elements of precision atomic spectroscopy, silicon micromachining and photonics. In the early 2000s, he and his group pioneered the development of chip-scale atomic clocks and magnetometers. based on a patent filed with the USPTO in 2001. These instruments achieve an unprecedented combination of stability/sensitivity and small size, low power consumption, and manufacturability.

Kitching has also been heavily involved in the application of his compact instruments to problems in biomagnetism and nuclear magnetic resonance. He is currently leading in the development of compact, SI-traceable standards of length, time, voltage, current, and temperature under NIST's "NIST on a Chip" program.

Several of Kitching's patented inventions have been successfully commercialized. His original chip-scale atomic clock was on display for about a decade in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Awards and honors
2023: Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

2021: Fellow of the IEEE

2021: Department of Commerce Gold Medal

2020: Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award, Optica

2018: Fellow of the American Physical Society

2017: Federal Laboratories Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer

2016: IEEE I. I. Rabi Award

2015: IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award

2014: Department of Commerce Gold Meda l

2014: Rank Prize in Optoelectronics

2013: NIST Fellow

2008: Arthur S. Flemming Award

2007: Jacob Rabinow Applied Research Award, NIST

2005: Jack Raper Award for Outstanding Technology-Directions

2005: Department of Commerce Silver Medal

2005: European Young Scientist Award, presented by the European Frequency and Time Forum

1990: Governor General of Canada's Silver Medal

1986: Governor General of Canada's Bronze Medal