JILA News

UNESCO named physicist Jun Ye to its Quantum 100 list—a catalogue of some of the top leaders around the world in the rapidly growing field of quantum science.

JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye has once again been recognized as one of the world’s most influential scientists. For the 12th year in a row, Ye has earned a place on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list, an honor reserved for researchers whose work ranks among the top 1% of citations globally across their fields.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $625 million investment to advance the next phase of the National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, a cornerstone of the National Quantum Initiative. This funding will support five centers dedicated to accelerating quantum technologies that promise transformative impacts on science, industry, and national security. JILA is proud to remain a key partner in QSA through the Q-SEnSE Center, which focuses on quantum sensing and precision measurement.

JILA and the University of Colorado Boulder are proud to announce that Professor Mathias Weber has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), for fundamental contributions to our understanding of molecular interactions and solvation effects in complex systems, obtained via elegant vibrational/electronic laser photodissociation spectroscopy of molecular and cluster ions in the gas phase.

JILA is proud to announce that Chuankun Zhang, a former graduate student in CU Boulder Physics professor and JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye’s research group, has been named a recipient of the prestigious 2025 Boeing Quantum Creators Prize. This national honor recognizes early-career researchers whose work is propelling quantum science and engineering in bold new directions.

Dr. Surya Pratap Deopa, Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of JILA Fellow and MCDB Professor Tom Perkins, has been honored with the 2025 BioFrontiers Outstanding Contribution Award. 

JILA and NIST Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Jun Ye has been awarded a prestigious 2025 AB Nexus seed grant for his pioneering work in quantum sensing technologies. 

JILA is delighted to welcome Dr. Taeho Ryu as an Associate Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Nobel Prize winner Eric Cornell honors his friend and colleague, Jun Ye, in the Coloradan.

On Wednesday, May 14th, over 115 students, postdoctoral researchers, staff, research scientists, and principal investigators attended the second Industry Spotlight Seminar, surpassing the record-breaking attendance from the inaugural event in this series the month prior. This seminar, hosted by JAGS, featured two current employees (and former JILAns) from Atom Computing, a Colorado quantum computing company founded in 2018 by JILA alumni and former Ye group member, Dr. Benjamin Bloom. 

Former JILA graduate student Olivia Krohn was awarded a distinguished fellowship at Sandia National Laboratories.

Professor Cindy Regal, Baur-SPIE Chair at JILA, has been named a 2025 Brown Investigator by the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech.

In a thrilling display of scientific communication and creativity, Thi Hoang, a graduate student at JILA, emerged victorious at the inaugural Quantum Science Slam held during the CLEO 2025 conference. This new event, designed to bring cutting-edge science to life for a broader audience, saw participants deliver engaging and entertaining 10-minute presentations on their research.

On April 16^th, over 100 graduate students, undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, staff, research scientists, and PIs attended the first JILA Association of Graduate Students (JAGS) Industry Spotlight. 

Jun Ye, a distinguished Fellow at JILA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and a physics professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been honored with the 2025 Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis. 

Dr. Olivia Krohn, a former JILA graduate student and now a postdoctoral researcher at Sandia National Laboratories, has been awarded the prestigious Justin Jankunas dissertation award, given out by the American Physical Society (APS) division of chemical physics at the APS Global Summit conference. This award recognizes exceptional doctoral research that advances the frontiers of physics. Krohn’s award highlights her dissertation research, which bridges the legacy of JILA’s origins in astrophysics with its current role as a global leader in atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics.

Congratulations to JILA graduate students Anya Grafov and Iona Binnie—who conduct their cutting-edge research in the laboratory of JILA Fellows and the University of Colorado Boulder professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn—for their outstanding achievements at the MMM Intermag 2025 conference!

Carl Sauer, a distinguished electrical engineer, passed away on February 2nd, 2025. He is survived by his wife and two sons, Carl and Evan. Sauer's passion for electrical engineering led him to a remarkable career marked by innovation and dedication.

JILA Fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Physicist and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Dr. Adam Kaufman has been awarded the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).  President Joe Biden announced that this accolade represents the highest honor conferred by the U.S. government to early-career scientists and engineers who exhibit extraordinary potential and leadership in their respective fields. Kaufman’s groundbreaking contributions to quantum science have cemented his place among nearly 400 recipients recognized for their innovative research and commitment to advancing scientific frontiers.

JILA graduate student Clay Klein has been awarded the prestigious 2025 Nick Cobb Memorial Scholarship, presented by SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, and Siemens EDA. The scholarship, valued at $10,000, recognizes Klein’s outstanding contributions to the field of optics and photonics.