Kavli Distinguished Lecturer Series with Amir Yacoby (Harvard University)

Local Quantum Probes of Quantum Matter

Major scientific discoveries are often enabled by new measurement capabilities that provide novel perspectives into complex physical problems. Recent advances and discoveries made on quantum materials have challenged experimentalists to come up with new ways to probe their intrinsic properties. In this talk I will review some of our recent work to develop a variety of local quantum sensing techniques and their application for exploring quantum matter.

Amir Yacoby is a Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. He graduated the Israeli Institute of Technology Suma Cum Laude in the field of Aerospace engineering. He then transitioned into theoretical physics and received a Master’s degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science. While remaining at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Professor Yacoby transitioned once again into experimental Physics and received his PhD in 1994. After a three-year post-doc at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, Professor Yacoby returned to the Weizmann institute of Science as an assistant professor and was tenured in 2002. In 2006 Professor Yacoby joined Harvard University.

Professor Yacoby works to develop new experimental techniques to explore quantum matter and uses these techniques to obtain new insights into their underlying quantum mechanical properties. His current interests are in understanding the behavior of low-dimensional systems and their applications to quantum information technology.

Professor Yacoby is a member of the National Academy of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, an external member of the Max Planck Society, a member of the Aspen Center of Physics, and a member the Quantum Materials Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He has been a “Highly Cited Researcher” in the Clarivate Analytics since 2015. His awards include: the Kavli Chair from Delft University in the Netherlands, The Lazaridis Chair in Physics from the University of Waterloo, the Moore Experimental Award, the Newcomb Cleveland Prize, The William L. McMillan Award, and the Alon young investigator award.

Faculty Host: Greg Fuchs