The 2013 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics

Awarded January 9, 2013, at the 43rd Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics.

Susanne Yelin, University of Connecticut and Harvard University

For pioneering contributions to the theory of coherence phenomena ranging from super-radiance to ultra-cold molecules.

Susanne Yelin received her doctorate from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany, in 1998. During her graduate student years, she was a visiting student with Marlan Scully for three years and with Willis Lamb for half a year. She had postdoctoral appointments at the Hanscom Airforce Base/MIT and at the Institute for Theoretical Atomic and Molecular Physics (ITAMP) at the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Since 2002 she is on the faculty of the Physics Department of the University of Connecticut, and holds in addition, since 2009, a Senior Research Scientist position in the Harvard Physics Department.

Her research has been focussing on theoretical quantum optics. She has been investigating different material systems in this context, and different phenomena. Her contributions include quantum coherence in quantum wells and quantum dots, quantum optics of bound donor and acceptor semiconductor excitons, coherent line narrowing in diamond NV centers, cooling of and quantum information processing with ultracold polar molecules, and the generation of coherence-based negative refraction in atomic gases. In addition, one of her main interests lies in superradiant/cooperative systems, and how, in particular, superradiance affects ultracold systems like Rydberg atoms and the vibrational states of molecules.

Bio provided by Prof. Yelin, 2012.