Jun Ye (; born 1967) is a Chinese-American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

at JILA,

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

, and the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

, working primarily in the field of

atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO) is the study of matter–matter and light–matter interactions, at the scale of one or a few atoms and energy scales around several electron volts. The three areas are closely interrelated. AMO th ...

Education and career

Ye was born in Shanghai, China, shortly after the beginning of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

. His father was a naval officer and his mother an environmental scientist. He was primarily raised by his grandmother. Ye graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics from

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) is a public university in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 98 ...

in 1989. He then moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to commence graduate studies, completing a master's degree at the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

under

Marlan Scully Marlan Orvil Scully (born August 3, 1939) is an American physicist best known for his work in theoretical quantum optics. He is a professor at Texas A&M University and Princeton University. Additionally, in 2012 he developed a lab at the Baylor ...

in theoretical

quantum optics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum chemistry that studies the behavior of photons (individual quanta of light). It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons and their interaction ...

in 1991. He also gained experience in experimental physics under John McInerney working on semiconductor lasers, and spent a summer at the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

. Ye then went to the

to begin a Ph.D. in physics. He was accepted as the last graduate student of eventual

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

laureate John L. Hall. His thesis was on high-resolution and high-sensitivity molecular

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

, which he completed in 1997. He then moved to

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

as a Milikan Postdoctoral Fellow, working under Jeff Kimble. Ye moved back to Boulder and JILA as a JILA Associate Fellow and

NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

physicist in 1999. John Hall donated most of his lab space to him. He was promoted to full Fellow in 2001 and has been there since, establishing a research program in AMO physics and precision measurement.

Research

Ye's research focuses on

ultracold atom In condensed matter physics, an ultracold atom is an atom with a temperature near absolute zero. At such temperatures, an atom's quantum-mechanical properties become important, especially through what's known as a "superfluid", such as Superfl ...

s, ultracold molecules, and laser-based precision measurement. In 2018 JILA reported that the 3D quantum gas clock reached a frequency precision of over 6 hours. Such clocks could potentially be used for research into variations in the Earth's gravitational field, searching for particles of

dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...

, performing quantum simulations of

many-body physics The many-body problem is a general name for a vast category of physical problems pertaining to the properties of microscopic systems made of many interacting particles. Terminology ''Microscopic'' here implies that quantum mechanics has to be ...

, and investigating the fundamental nature of

light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

and

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...

. He also conducts research on strontium for experiments in

quantum information science Quantum information science is a field that combines the principles of quantum mechanics with information theory to study the processing, analysis, and transmission of information. It covers both theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum phys ...

(collaborating with Mikhail Lukin,

Ana Maria Rey Ana Maria Rey is a Colombian theoretical physicist and professor at University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Colorado Boulder. She is also a JILA fellow, a fellow at National Institute of Standards and Technology, and a fellow of the Amer ...

Peter Zoller Peter Zoller (born 16 September 1952) is a theoretical physicist from Austria. He is professor at the University of Innsbruck and works on quantum optics and quantum information and is best known for his pioneering research on quantum computing ...

, and others).

Popularization of science

Ye appeared in the 2018 Netflix documentary ''The Most Unknown'' on scientific research directed by Ian Cheney.

Honors and awards

Ye has received numerous awards in the field of science, particularly AMO physics. These include: * the Adolph Lomb Medal of OSA in 1999 * the Arthur S. Flemming Award for outstanding federal employees in 2005 * the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the

Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...

in 2006 * the William F. Meggers Award of the

Optical Society of America Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...

in 2006 * the Carl Zeiss Research Award in 2007 * the I. I. Rabi Prize in AMO Physics from the APS in 2007 * five Gold Medals from the US Department of Commerce: for frequency combs (2001), ultracold molecules (2011), atomic clocks (2014, 2019, and 2022) * the

Samuel Wesley Stratton Award The Samuel Wesley Stratton Award has been annually presented by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, then NBS) since 1962 for "an unusually significant research contribution to science or engineering that merits the acclaim o ...

in 2006 from

* the Jacob Rabinow applied research award in 2017 from

* the 2019 Norman F. Ramsey Prize of the APS for his ground-breaking contributions to precision measurements and the quantum control of atomic and molecular systems, including atomic clocks * the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics * the Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics in 2021 * the Herbert Walther Award from Optica and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG) in 2022 * the

Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute () is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics, and biophysics. Overview The institute was foun ...

Medal of Honor in 2022 * the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship from the

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

in 2022 In 2015, President Obama selected Jun Ye to receive a

Presidential Rank Award The Presidential Rank Awards program is an individual award program granted by the United States government to career Senior Executive Service (SES) members and Senior Career Employees within the OPM-allocated Senior-Level (SL) or Scientific-Profe ...

for “sustained extraordinary accomplishment”, citing his work advancing "the frontier of light-matter interaction and focusing on precision measurement, quantum physics and ultracold matter, optical frequency metrology, and ultrafast science." He was elected a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

and a Fellow of the

. In 2011 he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, and also named a Frew Fellow from the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

. In 2017, Ye was elected as a foreign member of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

. He is one of the most highly cited researchers in experimental atomic physics in the world, having according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 120 () and being regularly named as a Thomson-Reuters ( ISI) Highly Cited Researcher. Ye also holds four U.S. Patents for frequency combs and laser technology.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ye, Jun 1967 births Living people 21st-century American physicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Scientists from Shanghai Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese emigrants to the United States Shanghai Jiao Tong University alumni University of New Mexico alumni University of Colorado Boulder alumni University of Colorado Boulder faculty National Institute of Standards and Technology Fellows of the American Physical Society Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers