News

Yale to Partner in New NSF Quantum Simulation Institute

Yale University is among the key partners of the new Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation, a multi-institutional effort supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that is focused on developing quantum simulation devices that can understand, and thereby exploit, the rich behavior of complex quantum systems. 

Alumni Spotlights: Elie Track Ph.D. ’88 received the 2020 YSEA Award for Meritorious Service to Yale University

Elie Track Ph.D ‘88 in Physics received the 2020 YSEA Award for Meritorious Service to Yale University from the Yale Science & Engineering Association (YSEA), in association with Yale Alumni Association. 

Congratulations to Elie!

Read more.

Combining Two Approaches to Advance Quantum Computing

Quantum computers hold the potential to out-perform all conventional computing systems. Two promising physical implementations for the storage and manipulation of quantum information are the electromagnetic modes of superconducting circuits and the spins of small numbers of electrons trapped in semiconductor quantum dots.

Read more.

An artificial spin ice primer

And now a quick pivot to the history and future of artificial spin ice.

About 15 years ago, Peter Schiffer, Yale’s Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics, helped launch a new field of research based on a magnetic system — artificial spin ice — in which arrays of tiny, magnetic nanostructures are designed to interact and display unusual physics properties. These arrays have been used to probe how nanometer-scale objects behave in a group that can be precisely controlled and imaged.

Simon Mochrie, professor of physics, wins the 2021 Dylan Hixon ’88 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Natural Sciences

In their nominations for this year’s Yale College Teaching Prizes, undergraduate students praised the honored faculty members for not only shining in the classroom but also for having a meaningful impact in their lives beyond it. Simon Mochrie, Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics received the Dylan Hixon ’88 Prize for teaching excellence in the natural sciences. Professor Mochrie was among the five recipients receiving the Yale College Teaching prizes this year.

In Memoriam: Mark A. Reed, Professor of Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics

Mark A. Reed, the Harold Hodgkinson Professor of Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics, and integral member of the SEAS community for three decades, passed away peacefully in his home on May 5, 2021, at the age of 66.

Professor Daniel Prober’s class interviewed and presented on the lives and work of Yale’s emeritus faculty as a final project for the class.

First-year seminar profiles emeritus faculty

Professor Daniel Prober’s class interviewed and presented on the lives and work of Yale’s emeritus faculty as a final project for the class.

Read full article at Yale Daily News.

In Memoriam: Tso-Ping Ma, Professor of Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics

Tso-Ping (T.P.) Ma, the Raymond J. Wean Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics and pillar of the SEAS community for nearly 50 years, passed away peacefully on April 6, 2021, at the age of 75, after a brief illness.

Hui Cao elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Congratulations to Hui Cao on being elected to the National Academy of Sciences.  

Four members of the Yale faculty were elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences this week in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. 

Read full article at Yale News.

Hui Cao elected to American Academy of Arts & Science 
By Susan Gonzalez

Hui Cao is among fourteen Yale faculty members elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

 Congratulations!

Read full article at YaleNews.

Shruti Puri is among the 2021 Google Research Scholar Award recipients

Congratulations to Shruti Puri on receiving the 2021 Research Scholar award in the Quantum Computing field from Google.

Click to read the announcement.

AP Alumni Spotlight: Archana Kamal, Ph.D.'10 receives AFOSR Young Investigator and NSF-CAREER awards

Anchana Kamal (Yale Ph.D.’10, a former graduate student with QLab - Devoret Group) has been recognized with two prestigious honors: Young Investigator Program award by Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and CAREER award by National Science Foundation. Congratulations to Anchana!

The Route to Robust Quantum Computing: Interview with Shruti Puri 
By Liang Dong, PhD

Quantum computing is a radically new way to store and process information based on the principles of quantum mechanics. While conventional computers store information in binary “bits” that are either 0s or 1s, quantum computers store information in quantum bits, or qubits. A qubit can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, and a series of qubits together remember many different things simultaneously.

Hui Cao on the Science Podcast: The world’s fastest random number generator

Sarah Crespi talks with Hui Cao, a professor of applied physics at Yale University, about a new way to generate enormous streams of random numbers faster than ever before, using a tiny laser that can fit on a computer chip.

Random numbers faster, from a laser
YaleNews Article by William Weir

Random numbers are increasingly important to our digitally connected world, with applications that include e-commerce, cryptography, and cloud computing. Producing a large amount of truly random numbers quickly, though, is a challenge.

To speed things up, a team of researchers has developed a compact laser that can produce these random numbers 100 times quicker than the fastest current systems. The results are published February 26 in the journal Science.

A spintronics success story

Yale researchers working with scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated the ability to control spin dynamics in magnetic materials by altering the materials’ thickness. The research stands as a major achievement in the emerging field of spintronics — the manipulation of electron spin — and could prove useful in developing the next generation of electronics.

New collaboration to break ground — by breaking symmetries
by Jim Shelton

Yale’s A. Douglas Stone, the Carl A. Morse Professor of Applied Physics and Physics, is a principal investigator for a new, multi-institution research collaboration that will explore wave properties and symmetries. The four-year, $8 million Simons Collaboration on Extreme Wave Phenomena Based on Symmetries will bring together concepts in applied mathematics, theoretical and computational physics, modern optics and photonics, and acoustics.

Simon Mochrie Among Scientists Named Allen Distinguished Investigators

Megan C. King, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Cell Biology and of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, and Simon Mochrie, Ph.D., Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, have been named Allen Distinguished Investigators by The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute. They are among eight scientists who lead or co-lead five research projects that the Frontiers Group announced today. Each project receives $1.5 million for a three-year period. 

AP Alumni Spotlight: Irfan Siddiqi receives the 2021 Joseph F. Keithley Award

APS has recently announced the Society’s Spring 2021 prize and award recipients. Irfan Siddiqi, a Yale AP alumnus is among the recipients of the 2021 APS awards.

AP Alumni Spotlight: Kathy Aidala elected 2020 APS Fellow

Katherine Aidala, a Yale Applied Physics alumna, is among the 2020 APS Fellows elected.

Professor Aidala currently holds a faculty position at Mount Holyoke College, MA. 

Fellowship is a distinct honor signifying recognition by one’s professional peers. Each year, no more than one half of one percent of the Society’s membership (excluding student members) is recognized by their peers for election to the status of Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Shruti Puri has been named 2020 Blavatnik Regional Awards Finalist

Shruti Puri, our AP new Assistant Professor has been named the Finalist of the 2020 Balvatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists for her work as a postdoctoral associate while working with Steven Girvin.

AP Alumni Spotlight - Elie Track receives the 2020 IEEE CSC - Max Swerdlow Award

Elie Track graduated with a Ph.D. from Yale Applied Physics in 1988 (with Prof. Dan Prober’s group). He is a founder and CEO of nVizix LLC, a company that focuses on developing and commercializing a new high-efficiency vacuum solar cell.  

Elie was selected to be the recipient of the 2020 IEEE - Max Swerdlow Award for Sustained Service to the Applied Superconductivity Community.

Applied Physics Welcomes Two New Ladder Faculty Members

The Yale Applied Physics Department welcomes two new ladder faculty members.

Schoelkopf named to national quantum council

YaleNews:  Insights & Outcomes: Schoelkopf on quantum council and a dopamine discovery

Ingredients for a Quantum Future

In a series of essays, three quantum-technology leaders in the US spell out the requirements for a strong quantum future.

Irfan Siddiqi (Yale Applied Physics’ Alumnus), the University of California, Berkeley

Darío Gil, the director of IBM Research, and

Joe Broz, the executive director of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C)

Yale scientists to help lead national quantum center
By Jim Shelton

Yale will play a major role in a new, national center for quantum research announced Aug. 26 by the White House and the United States Department of Energy.

Yale quantum researchers create an error-correcting cat
By Jim Shelton - Illustration by Michael S. Helfenbein

Yale physicists have developed an error-correcting cat — a new device that combines the Schrödinger’s cat concept of superposition (a physical system existing in two states at once) with the ability to fix some of the trickiest errors in a quantum computation.

It is Yale’s latest breakthrough in the effort to master and manipulate the physics necessary for a useful quantum computer: correcting the stream of errors that crop up among fragile bits of quantum information, called qubits, while performing a task.

Yale’s single quantum spin story

A research result by Yale physicists lends credibility to an exotic proposal for safeguarding quantum information called topological quantum protection. A team led by Michel Devoret, the F.W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics and Physics, has applied the tools of circuit quantum electrodynamics to achieve the continuous monitoring of a quasiparticle’s spin. 

Applied Physics joins the School of Engineering & Applied Science
By William Weir

In celebration and acknowledgment of their long intellectual and working history at Yale, the Department of Applied Physics (AP) and the School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) have officially rejoined forces. As of July 1, 2020, AP is a member of SEAS, joining the school at a pivotal moment in Yale’s history, as the university carries out a set of large-scale strategic investments in science and engineering. 

2020 Applied Physics Senior Prize Winners

Congratulations to Kazemi Adachi (YC ‘20) and Aparna Nair-Kanneganti (YC ‘20) on awarded the Department of Applied Physics Prizes. Both were seniors in Applied Physics.

Royal Society elects Nicholas Read

Yale physicist Nicholas Read has been elected a fellow of the Royal Society, one of the most highly regarded honors bestowed upon scientists in the United Kingdom and select foreign institutions.

Read is the Henry Ford II Professor of Physics and professor of applied physics and mathematics in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Born in Great Britain, Read is one of 51 new fellows and 10 foreign members elected to the Royal Society this year.

Read more at YaleNews.

Katherine Aidala (AP alumni) wins spring 2020 APS prize
By Christian Feuerstein

Katherine Aidala, professor of physics at Mount Holyoke College (Yale AP alumni), has won the  2020 Prize for a Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution from the American Physical Society. 

Christine Caragianis Broadbridge - CRISP Education Director Appointed VP of the Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering

Christine Caragianis Broadbridge, Ph.D, professor of physics and Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) and Education Director of CRISP at Yale/SCSU, has been appointed Vice President of the Academy. Professor Broadbridge will serve as Vice President through June 30, 2020, with the Council’s recommendation that her name be submitted for election by the membership for President (2020 - 2022) and Past President (2022 - 2024). 

Peter Schiffer named the Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics

Peter E. Schiffer, recently appointed the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics, is an international leader in experimental condensed matter physics, specializing in the study of magnetic systems.

In addition to his new appointment, Schiffer will continue to serve as vice provost for research, an inaugural post created in 2017 to bring a new level of strategic attention to Yale’s science and research enterprise. Read full article at YaleNews.

Charles Ahn appointed the Malone Professor of Applied Physics

Charles H. Ahn, recently named as the John C. Malone Professor of Applied Physics, focuses his research on the fabrication and characterization of the physical properties of materials using advanced synthesis and measurement techniques, such as molecular beam epitaxy and synchrotron x-ray experiments.

Physicists can predict the jumps of Schrödinger’s cat (and finally save it)
Illustration by Kat Stockton

by Jim Shelton

Yale researchers have figured out how to catch and save Schrödinger’s famous cat, the symbol of quantum superposition and unpredictability, by anticipating its jumps and acting in real time to save it from proverbial doom. In the process, they overturn years of cornerstone dogma in quantum physics. Read full article at YaleNews.

Dan Prober received the YSEA Award for Advancement of Basic and Applied Science

Dan Prober is the 2019 YSEA award recipient for Advancement of Basic and Applied Science.  The Yale Science and Engineering Assocation, Inc. (YSEA) has recently announced.

Yale physicists light the way for new technology discoveries

by: Jon Atherton

Enshrined by the laws of Austrian physicists Josef Stefan and Ludwig Boltzmann in the late 19th Century, scientists have long understood the general principles of heat-energy transfer between the sun and planet Earth.

But at much closer separations, where photons can effectively “tunnel” between two bodies, the maximum rate and size at which two objects – one hot, one cold – can transfer heat has remained unknown.

Hui Cao named the Malone Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics

Hui Cao, newly named as the John C. Malone Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics, focuses her research on mesoscopic physics and nanophotonics. Read full article at Yale News.

Yale scientists make a borophene breakthrough

By Jon Atherton

The thinnest flake, just one atom thick, has provided scientists at Yale and the Brookhaven National Laboratory with new insight into a promising material for the next generation of high-speed electronics and a host of practical applications. Read full article at YaleNews.

Making sound ‘chill out’

By Jim Shelton

Yale scientists have discovered that laser light can be used to cool traveling sound waves in a silicon chip. Their findings appear in the Nov. 27 online edition of the journal Physical Review X.

Charles Ahn was among four Yale faculty members named AAAS Fellows

By Bill Hathaway

Four Yale faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

The 416 members have been awarded this honor by the AAAS in recognition of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Studying Science, from the Elm City to the South Pole

Most scientists will never have the opportunity to travel to the South Pole for their research, but then again, most scientists aren’t Faustin Carter (PhD ’15). Carter works as a postdoctoral researcher at Argonne National Laboratory in the High Energy Physics division. He is part of a group that specializes in building detectors for esoteric applications. The group’s primary focus over the last several years has been building and testing detectors for a massive upgrade to a telescope located at the geographic South Pole in Antarctica.

Dan Prober awarded the "2018 IEEE Council on Superconductivity"
Dan Prober received the IEEE Council on Superconductivity award for 2018.
The award given in recognition of  his continuing and significant contributions in the field of superconductive electronics, in particular: 
  • for pioneering work on SIS quasiparticle mixers, including the first demonstration of detector sensitivity approaching the quantum limit;
The cure for chaotic lasers? More chaos, of course
by Jim Shelton

by Jim Shelton

An international, Yale-led research team has taken a new approach to stabilizing high-power lasers: They’re fighting chaos with chaos.

BoSS v1.0 released: slave-boson software
BoSS code: electron described as separate charge and spin

We are happy to announce the public release of the slave-boson code “BoSS” (Boson Slave Solver) today!  This is a free software avaialble to you to perform slave-boson calculations that include electron correlations for extended Hubbard models.  Software is available at bitbucket.org/yalebosscode/boss/

$16M grant bolsters Yale’s quantum computing research

Yale’s next wave of quantum computing research will get a boost from a $16 million grant from the U.S. Army Research Office.

New laser makes silicon ‘sing’

Yale scientists have created a new type of silicon laser that uses sound waves to amplify light. A study about the discovery appears in the online edition of the journal Science. More on YaleNews.

Nicholas Read and Peter E. Schiffer are among newly elected members of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE)
Piersonite, physicist, vice provost for research – it’s Peter Schiffer

As a Yale undergraduate, Peter Schiffer ’88 admits he spent more time at the Yale Political Union (YPU) than in the lab. It’s rather ironic that, nearly three decades later, the Piersonite and Progressive Party member has returned to Yale as vice provost for research, a role “intended to support research and scholarship across the entire enterprise and not just science and engineering — the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts.” Read more…

Hui Cao among three Yale faculty named fellows of largest scientific society

Yale scientists Hui Cao, Peter Raymond, and Karen Seto have been named by their peers as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

They will be among 396 members elevated to the rank of fellow at the Feb. 17 AAAS annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Each honoree will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin.

Quantum data takes a ride on sound waves

Yale scientists have created a simple-to-produce device that uses sound waves to store quantum information and convert it from one form to another, all inside a single, integrated chip.

The device allows a superconducting artificial atom — a qubit — to exchange energy and quantum information with a high frequency bulk acoustic wave resonator (HBAR). The ability to manipulate and store fragile quantum data in a robust and easy-to-manufacture way is a crucial step in the development of quantum computing technology.

Yale appoints first vice provost for research: physicist Peter Schiffer

Peter Schiffer, an experimental physicist currently at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, has been named the university’s inaugural vice provost for research — a post created to bring a new level of strategic attention to Yale’s science and research enterprise, announced President Peter Salovey and Provost Benjamin Polak.

YQI to welcome Martha W Lewis as Artist in Residence

In October 2016, the Yale Quantum Institute launched a Call for Art Proposals to commission quantum physics themed artwork to fill a bare wall at the entrance of the institute. A few months after the call, we received 26 proposals from Yale Students and New Haven based artists. The proposals were all of great quality and we were very impressed by the connection these artists have made with quantum physics, a fairly hard to access subject.

Nicholas Read elected to National Academy of Sciences

Four Yale professors elected to National Academy of Sciences

Professors Robert Crabtree, Nicholas Read, Karen Seto, and Daniel Spielman have been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Read more…

Connecticut Medal of Science goes to Yale’s Robert Schoelkopf

Yale’s Robert Schoelkopf, Sterling Professor of Applied Physics and Physics and director of the Yale Quantum Institute, was awarded the 2017 Connecticut Medal of Science for his seminal contributions to the field of quantum science and to the new field of circuit quantum electrodynamics. The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) announced the honor. Read more…

Top 10 Breakthrough by Physics World: "Schrödinger's cat that lives and dies in two boxes at once"

“Schrödinger’s cat that lives and dies in two boxes at once”, the research done by Chen Wang and his team was chosen to be one of the top 10 breakthroughs by Physics World editors and reporters. Click to read more.

Zlatko Minev to receive Yale-Jefferson Public Service Award
Near-field radiative heat transfer bounds highlighted in SPIE Newsroom

Our work developing new, general bounds to near-field radiative heat transfer has been highlighted in our SPIE Newsroom article. 

Owen Miller receives 2016 AFOSR Young Investigator Award
2016 Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize Awarded to Prof Michel Devoret

Professor Michel Devoret has received the 2016 Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize for his pioneering investigations and applications of macroscopic quantum phenomena at low temperatures. The prize was announced on August 16th 2016 at the international Quantum Fluids and Solids Conference (QFS2016) in Praque, Czech Republic.

Extending Qubit Lifetime with Quantum Error Correction

Yale Researchers have crossed the “break even” point in preserving a bit of quantum information for longer than the lifetime of its constituent parts, as published in Nature.

A novel system has been created to encode, spot errors, decode, and correct errors in a quantum bit, also known as a “qubit.” The development of such a robust method of Quantum Error Correction (QEC) has been one of the biggest remaining hurdles in quantum computation.

See News Reports:

In ‘Rare’ Honor, Two Yale Physicists Earn Top Prizes From the APS

The American Physical Society (APS) has chosen two Yale physicists to receive two of its prestigious annual awards.

Ramamurti Shankar, the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics, is the 2009 winner of the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize, “awarded for outstanding contributions to physics by a single individual who also has exceptional skills in lecturing to diverse audiences,” according to APS.