Fellow Alexei Vladimirovich Sokolov earned an MS from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1994 and a PhD in physics from Stanford University in 2001. Sokolov is now a professor of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University, where he holds the Stephen Harris Professorship in Quantum Optics. He has been awarded the JoAnn Treat Research Excellence Award (2011), Robert S. Hyer Award (2007), Montague Scholarship from Center for Teaching Excellence (2005), and Adolph Lomb Medal (2003).