Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Deborah S. Jin 1968–2016: Trailblazer of ultracold science

Kang-Kuen Ni, Markus Greiner, Silke Ospelkaus

Published Dec 30, 2016• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Deborah Jin, a pioneer in modern atomic and molecular physics, passed away on September 15, 2016, at age 47, after a courageous fight with cancer. She was a world renowned scientist at JILA (formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics) in Boulder, Colorado, a joint institute of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado. Her research field was the world of atoms and molecules and their quantum mechanical behavior at temperatures close to absolute zero. Although she was a pioneer in her field, Jin was also humble and modest. She was a role model to many physicists worldwide through her enthusiastic and methodical approach to science.

DOI
10.1073/pnas.1619292114

Related papers

News Briefs

Researchers at JILA, a joint program of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, recently announced that they achieved a temperature far lower than any previously produced and created an entirely new state of matter predicted 70 years ago by Albert Einstein and Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.A paper in the July 14 Science by the researchers describe how the team cooled rubidium atoms to less than 170 nK above absolute zero.The extreme cold caused the individual atoms to condense into a ''superatom'' that behaved as a single entity.Before photographing the superatomknown as a Bose-Einstein condensate-the physicists cooled the atoms to 20 nK above absolute zero, the lowest temperature ever achieved.The achievement climaxed a 15 year search by physicists worldwide for the condensate.

Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology•Sep 1, 1995•0 citations

The revolution that has not stopped

At 10.54 a.m. on Monday 5 June 1995 a group of physicists at the JILA laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, created something that had never been seen before – a Bose – Einstein condensate made of atoms. Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman and colleagues had made a new state of matter by cooling a gas of rubidium-87 atoms to a temperature of just 170 nK. This was so cold that the de Broglie wavelength of the atoms was comparable with the distance between them, causing the atoms to condense into the same quantum ground state. The breakthrough in Boulder kick-started an intense period of research into the properties of ultracold atoms that continues to this day, and has implications for topics as diverse as super-fluidity and the early universe.

Physics World•Jun 1, 2005•0 citations

Deborah Jin Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Atomic, Molecular, or Optical Physics Recipient: Ultracold Molecules in Optical Arrays: From Laser Cooling to Molecular Collisions

Loïc Anderegg

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Jun 1, 2021•0 citations

The Fermionic Cousin of Bose–Einstein Condensate Makes its Debut

Barbara Goss Levi

Experimenters have been romping in the BEC playground ever since a gaseous Bose–Einstein condensate was first produced four years ago. It was almost inevitable, then, that researchers would also want to explore its fermionic cousin—the quantum degenerate state one expects to get by cooling a gas of atoms with half-integer spins. Whereas the integer-spin atoms (bosons) in a Bose–Einstein condensate all pile into the lowest energy state, the half-integer spin atoms (fermions) are prevented from doing so by the Pauli exclusion principle, which prohibits two identical fermions from occupying the same quantum state. Instead, the atoms fill all the lowest energy levels up to the Fermi energy, just as electrons do in a solid. The crossover into this quantum degenerate state is gradual, compared to the abrupt phase transition into a Bose condensate. But that crossover has now been convincingly detected by Deborah Jin, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Brian DeMarco, a physics graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, both working at JILA.

Physics Today•Oct 1, 1999•1 citation

An Intimate Gathering of Bosons

Keith R. Burnett

All too frequently we hear the term {open_quotes}Holy Grail{close_quotes} breathlessly invoked to describe one goal or another in science. However, objections can be held back in using this term for the recent experimental achievements at JILA of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Atomic physicists at JILA have been able, using the techniques of laser and evaporative cooling, to put thousands of atoms into the same quantum state. In short, they have observed the phenomenon called Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in a gas of atoms for the first time. The term Holy Grail seems quite appropriate given the singular importance of this discovery. This article describes the research program, how it was developed and the future possibilities. 8 refs.

Science•Jul 14, 1995•18 citations

A Fermi gas of atoms

Deborah Jin

WHEN the 2001 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman from JILA in Boulder, Colorado, and to Wolfgang Ketterle from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they were recognized for creating and studying Bose–Einstein condensates – dilute gases of atoms that are all in the same quantum state. Their remarkable achievement enabled "quantum gases" to be studied experimentally for the first time, and jump-started new sub-fields of research, including gaseous superfluidity, atom lasers and matter–wave optics.

Physics World•Apr 1, 2002•9 citations
Deborah Jin, a pioneer in modern atomic and molecular physics, passed away on September 15, 2016, at age 47, after a courageous fight with cancer. She was a world renowned scientist at JILA (formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics) in Boulder, Colorado, a joint institute of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado. Her research field was the world of atoms and molecules and their quantum mechanical behavior at temperatures close to absolute zero. Although she was a pioneer in her field, Jin was also humble and modest. She was a role model to many physicists worldwide through her enthusiastic and methodical approach to science.
Researchers at JILA, a joint program of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, recently announced that they achieved a temperature far lower than any previously produced and created an entirely new state of matter predicted 70 years ago by Albert Einstein and Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.A paper in the July 14 Science by the researchers describe how the team cooled rubidium atoms to less than 170 nK above absolute zero.The extreme cold caused the individual atoms to condense into a ''superatom'' that behaved as a single entity.Before photographing the superatomknown as a Bose-Einstein condensate-the physicists cooled the atoms to 20 nK above absolute zero, the lowest temperature ever achieved.The achievement climaxed a 15 year search by physicists worldwide for the condensate.
At 10.54 a.m. on Monday 5 June 1995 a group of physicists at the JILA laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, created something that had never been seen before – a Bose – Einstein condensate made of atoms. Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman and colleagues had made a new state of matter by cooling a gas of rubidium-87 atoms to a temperature of just 170 nK. This was so cold that the de Broglie wavelength of the atoms was comparable with the distance between them, causing the atoms to condense into the same quantum ground state. The breakthrough in Boulder kick-started an intense period of research into the properties of ultracold atoms that continues to this day, and has implications for topics as diverse as super-fluidity and the early universe.
Experimenters have been romping in the BEC playground ever since a gaseous Bose–Einstein condensate was first produced four years ago. It was almost inevitable, then, that researchers would also want to explore its fermionic cousin—the quantum degenerate state one expects to get by cooling a gas of atoms with half-integer spins. Whereas the integer-spin atoms (bosons) in a Bose–Einstein condensate all pile into the lowest energy state, the half-integer spin atoms (fermions) are prevented from doing so by the Pauli exclusion principle, which prohibits two identical fermions from occupying the same quantum state. Instead, the atoms fill all the lowest energy levels up to the Fermi energy, just as electrons do in a solid. The crossover into this quantum degenerate state is gradual, compared to the abrupt phase transition into a Bose condensate. But that crossover has now been convincingly detected by Deborah Jin, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Brian DeMarco, a physics graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, both working at JILA.
All too frequently we hear the term {open_quotes}Holy Grail{close_quotes} breathlessly invoked to describe one goal or another in science. However, objections can be held back in using this term for the recent experimental achievements at JILA of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Atomic physicists at JILA have been able, using the techniques of laser and evaporative cooling, to put thousands of atoms into the same quantum state. In short, they have observed the phenomenon called Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in a gas of atoms for the first time. The term Holy Grail seems quite appropriate given the singular importance of this discovery. This article describes the research program, how it was developed and the future possibilities. 8 refs.
WHEN the 2001 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman from JILA in Boulder, Colorado, and to Wolfgang Ketterle from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they were recognized for creating and studying Bose–Einstein condensates – dilute gases of atoms that are all in the same quantum state. Their remarkable achievement enabled "quantum gases" to be studied experimentally for the first time, and jump-started new sub-fields of research, including gaseous superfluidity, atom lasers and matter–wave optics.