Prof. Jim Freericks and Postdoctoral Fellow Joseph Wang are part of a multidisciplinary team that has recently demonstrated the onset of a quantum phase transition in a quantum simulator made from up to nine trapped ions. The experimental team, led by the group of Chris Monroe at the University of Maryland and the Joint Quantum Institute, performed simulations of the transverse field Ising model on 2 to 9 trapped ion systems. The Georgetown team involved in theory and computation to help understand the experimental results. This work was reported in the July 5 issue of Nature Communications. Access to the full article is available from the journal website http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1374. The joint quantum institute has a nice summary of the work.