NIST/JILA physicist Jun Ye
Credit: R. Jacobson/NIST
BOULDER, Colo. — Physicist Jun Ye of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been awarded the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his pioneering research on atomic clocks.
Ye has been a physicist at JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder, for more than 20 years.
The prize selection committee cited him for “outstanding contributions to the invention and development of the optical lattice clock, which enables precision tests of the fundamental laws of nature.”
“We are extremely proud to have Jun Ye on our staff and to have him recognized with a Breakthrough Prize,” said James K. Olthoff, who is currently performing the nonexclusive functions and duties of the under secretary of commerce for standards and technology and director, NIST. “Jun has been conducting trailblazing physics since he arrived at JILA in the late 1990s, as a student of Nobel laureate Jan Hall. Jun found innovative ways to apply the frequency comb that Jan helped to develop, shattering records for the precision of atomic clocks and taking molecular chemistry to new ultracold frontiers with the late Debbie Jin. Considering his past accomplishments, we know he will achieve many other breakthroughs.”
Ye will receive $1.5 million, half of the $3 million physics prize. Hidetoshi Katori of the University of Tokyo will receive the other half of the prize for his work on atomic clocks.
Optical clocks are so named because they operate at optical frequencies, which are much higher and therefore enable more precise timekeeping than the microwave frequencies in today’s timekeeping standards.
Ye’s clocks use lasers to cool stro ..
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