Person: Hau, Lene Vestergaard
Lene Hau is a Danish physicist and mathematician. She has led a team at Harvard University who have slowed light and in 2001 succeeded in stopping a beam of light. This has important applications to quantum computing.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- After being awarded her B.S. degree in Mathematics in 1984, Hau continued to study at the University of Aarhus for her Master's degree in Physics which was awarded two years later.
- For her doctoral studies in quantum theory Hau worked on ideas similar to those involved in fibre optic cables carrying light, but her work involved strings of atoms in a silicon crystal carrying electrons.
- While working towards her doctorate Hau spent seven months at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics near Geneva.
- On 18 February 1999 the journal Nature selected for its cover article the paper Light speed reduction to 17 metres per second in an ultracold atomic gas written by Hau in collaboration with Stephen Harris of Stanford University and two Harvard graduate students Zachary Dutton and Cyrus Behroozi.
- The first step was the creation of the "candlestick" by Hau and Golovchenko in 1994.
- Hau produced slow light by inducing quantum interference in the condensate.
- In 1999 Hau was named Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University.
- Hau was a MacArthur Fellow from 2001 to 2006 and was selected by the MacArthur Foundation as one of only nine MacArthur Fellows to be featured in connection with the 25th anniversary of the MacArthur Fellows programme.
- In addition to these and other awards, in 2007 Hau and her team were selected by Nature as the "Favourite of 2007 in Quantum Physics" and her team was also selected by the American Institute of Physics as "Top Ten Physics News Stories of 2007".
Born 13 November 1959, Vejle, Denmark.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Denmark, Women
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
