David Patterson's research is focussed on extending the tools of atomic, molecular and optical physics to prepare polyatomic molecules in single quantum states for the first time. His research interests include the development of quantum information systems, high precision spectroscopy, parity violation in molecular spectra, and single molecule chemical and chiral analysis.
His lab, The Patterson group, is dedicated to carefully doing things to molecules that have never been done before. The group also develops novel spectroscopy methods to realize ultraprecise chemical analysis of diverse systems. More specifically, the group is pursuing three cold molecule frontiers, both driven by the idea of exploiting the rich, fundamentally quantum behavior of cold molecules.