Published: July 8, 2014

Deborah Jin has won the 2014 Isaac Newton Medal, the highest accolade given by the Institute of Physics. She was cited for her experimental work in laser cooling atoms. This work has led to the practical demonstration of universal laws that underpin fundamental quantum behavior. 

"Professor Jin is an outstanding, clever, creative scientist," said Prof. Ed Hinds of the Imperial College London. "Her incredibly complex experiments have significantly advanced our understanding of the behavior of electrons in materials. Through her laser cooling of atoms, she has shown that half-integer spin fermions can be coupled to behave like full integer spin bosons.

"These fermion condensates and the work that she has undertaken on extremely cold polar molecules have helped us go deep into the quantum world, a world that we're only just starting to understand in complex many-body systems. Her work is likely to lead to profound advances in measuring and sensing, as well as quantum computing."

The IOP citation states, Ultracold Fermi gases now represent one of the major activities in all of atomic physics, an activity where Jin remains the leader and pioneer.

Courtesy JILA Scientific Communications