Prof. Sokol received his B.S. from the University of Buffalo in 1977. During that time he worked in the laboratory of Jonathan Reichert. After receiving his B.S he joined Lakeshore Cryotronics as a cryogenic design engineer. In 1988 he left to pursue his Ph.D. with James Gaines at The Ohio State University where he worked on low temperature NMR measurements of solid hydrogen receiving his Ph.D. in 1981. He did postdoctoral work with Ralph Simmons at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign where he studied high energy neutron scattering from superfluid helium. He joined the faculty of Harvard in 1984 where he continued his neutron scattering studies of quantum liquids and solids. In 1988 he left Harvard to join the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University. In 2004 he joined Indiana University as Professor of Physics. He served as Director of the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility from 2004 to 2007 where he oversaw the construction of the Low Energy Neutron Source and the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. He has also served as a special advisor and Associate Vice Provost for Research at IU from 2010 to 2012. In 2013 he joined the National Science Foundation as a rotating program officer in the Condensed Matter Physics Program in the Division of Materials Research. In 2017 he returned to focus on his research.
