CQE PI Feature – Steven F Nagle

Quantum science and engineering depends as much on how experiments are planned, built, and measured as on the underlying theory. As Managing Director of the T. J. Rodgers RLE Laboratory, Dr. Nagle works closely with researchers to help translate scientific requirements into reliable, scalable experimental systems. He brings decades of hands-on industry experience across multiple engineering and scientific disciplines, shaping a practical, systems-oriented approach to experimental design and measurement. In addition to supporting individual research efforts, the lab actively engages both MIT researchers and industry partners through collaborative technical exchanges, including forums where consortium members are invited to participate in focused discussions around shared measurement, fabrication, and integration challenges.

Researchers typically arrive with a set of experimental goals. Dr. Nagle advises on how to translate those into requirements that might be realized in hardware—refining system architectures, measurement strategies, and implementation paths—and supports the hands-on work required to build, test, and validate the resulting apparatus, drawing on a suite of shared instrumentation and prototyping capabilities within the Rodgers Lab. The Managing Director role shares many characteristics of senior mentorship: contributing technical perspective and execution experience while leaving scientific direction, day-to-day implementation, and ownership fully in the hands of the researcher.

A growing portion of this work supports quantum research. Dr. Nagle advises on high-frequency microwave packaging, cryogenic-compatible RF design, dense routing and signal-hygiene strategies, and related analog design considerations. These planning discussions often surface hidden constraints—packaging limits, signal-integrity risks, and calibration challenges—which are then addressed through rapid prototyping and iterative measurement. By combining internal and external PCB prototyping resources, precision enclosure design, optimized surface finishing strategies, and high-precision instrumentation, the Rodgers Lab helps researchers move more efficiently from concept to functioning hardware.

Beyond quantum-specific systems, Dr. Nagle’s industry experience spans electromagnetics, micro- and nanoscale device fabrication, precision metrology, and advanced instrumentation. Early work on MEMS-based interferometric instruments—including tunable Fabry–Perot cavities implemented with flip-chip–bonded SOI MEMS—highlighted the importance of integrating device physics, fabrication constraints, optical design, and readout electronics. Subsequent development of next-generation atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes and associated metrology workflows further deepened this perspective by linking nanoscale mechanics, surface science, instrumentation design, and data interpretation.

This experience was complemented by six years of instruction and consulting across diverse disciplines. Through twelve semesters of teaching advanced instrumentation in the MIT Biological Engineering Department, Dr. Nagle worked with undergraduate students to connect theoretical principles to the practical design of custom optical and electronic instruments, such as research-grade microscopes and spectroscopy systems. Consulting engagements ranged from analog circuit and measurement software design to Raman and mid-IR spectroscopy, organ-on-chip instrumentation, and all-optical electrophysiology. Together, these teaching and consulting roles sharpened a systems-level approach grounded in continual learning, synthesis across domains, and attention to failure modes—informing later work on large-scale automated measurement platforms and closed-loop experimental systems.

The Rodgers Lab operates as a shared experimental resource designed to support this style of collaboration. In 2025, the lab served over 300 MIT researchers working across quantum computing, photonics, flexible bioelectronics, microfluidics, RF engineering, materials science, and biomedical devices. These teams leveraged capabilities including picosecond laser micromachining, high-frequency network analysis, precision plating, and rapid PCB prototyping to accelerate their work and reduce iteration time.

In parallel with this day-to-day research support, the lab convenes a series of industry–research forums that bring together instrument developers, system engineers, and MIT researchers around concrete technical challenges. Recent forums have addressed topics such as digital lock-in amplification and resonator measurement techniques; laser-based wafer dicing and MEMS process optimization; high-performance oscilloscope methods for frequency-domain analysis; quantum control stack architecture; integrated photonics layout and CAD workflows; low-noise laser sources; and the evolution of dry cryogenic systems for quantum and precision-measurement applications. These forums are structured around real measurement, fabrication, and integration problems, with an emphasis on practical workflows rather than product overviews, and they often seed deeper technical exchanges and follow-on collaborations. Consortium companies are encouraged to participate in future forums, where their technical perspectives can directly inform—and be informed by—the experimental needs emerging from the MIT research community.

Building on these exchanges, Dr. Nagle is especially interested in engaging with quantum researchers at moments where experimental decisions are still flexible and architectural tradeoffs can be explored deliberately. The Rodgers Lab is also well positioned to support later stages of an experiment’s life cycle, including validating measurements, diagnosing unexpected behavior, and providing independent instrumentation to de-risk critical results.

As the lab continues to evolve in response to researcher needs, these interactions help shape new capabilities—enabling more ambitious prototypes, stronger test and calibration strategies, and a smoother path from proof-of-concept to scalable systems. Aligned with the Center for Quantum Engineering and the MIT Quantum Initiative (QMIT), this shared engagement contributes to reusable hardware approaches and common experimental practices that benefit the broader research community.