Photo of Chuankun Zhang at JILA.
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.
Zhang’s award-winning research centers on the development of a solid-state optical nuclear clock based on the elusive thorium-229 nuclear transition—a breakthrough that could redefine precision timekeeping and open new avenues for both fundamental physics and practical metrology applications. As part of the Ye group, Zhang played a leading role in building extreme ultraviolet (XUV) frequency combs for direct laser spectroscopy of thorium nuclei. His work was featured in a 2024 cover article in Nature, highlighting the first-ever precision measurement of this nuclear transition directly referenced to an optical atomic clock standard.
“This is just the beginning of this new field,” Zhang said during a recent colloquium at CU Boulder. Working closely with collaborators worldwide, the Ye group has continued to develop new material platforms for the nuclear clock, explore the nuclear clock performance in different host materials, and use the nuclear clock platform to probe fundamental physics.
The 2025 Boeing Quantum Creators Prize will be awarded at the annual Chicago Quantum Summit on November 3–4. The prize includes a $3,500 honorarium and a commemorative trophy.
Zhang’s recognition underscores the collaborative and interdisciplinary spirit of JILA, where experimental innovation and theoretical insight, from both within and external of JILA, converge to push the boundaries of quantum science.
Congratulations to Chuankun Zhang on this outstanding achievement!