Associate Professor Phil Richerme uses cold atoms to perform experiments in quantum information, quantum simulation, and quantum computing. Ions can be strongly confined using laboratory electric fields, and can be extraordinarily well-isolated from their surrounding environments. Lattices of trapped ions can be programmed to emulate the quantum properties of strongly-correlated materials, which are traditionally difficult to understand using analytic or numeric techniques. In addition, these ions can be made to act like complex quantum-chemical systems to study fundamental problems in chemical catalysis.