Lene Hau

Born in Vejle, Denmark on November 13, 1959, Lene Vestergaard Hau studied mathematics and physics at Aarhus University, earning her doctorate in 1991. Moving to the United States on a postdoctoral fellowship at the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Hau specialized in experimental atomic physics, laser cooling, and ultracold quantum matter. In February 1999, Hau and her research team stunned the world: using a cloud of sodium atoms cooled to within nanokelvins above absolute zero—forming a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC)—Hau shone a laser beam through the quantum matter and slowed light (which travels at 186,282 miles per second in a vacuum) down to a bicycle-riding speed of just 17 meters per second (about 38 miles per hour). In 2001, Hau succeeded in bringing a light pulse to a complete halt inside the atom cloud, storing its quantum optical information, and releasing it intact seconds later. In 2007, she demonstrated quantum memory transfer by stopping a light pulse in one atomic cloud and reconstructing it from a completely separate cloud meters away. Appointed the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University in 1999, Hau's groundbreaking work has unlocked revolutionary frontiers in quantum computing, optical telecommunications, and macroscopic quantum physics. Honored with a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship and inducted into the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Dr. Lene Hau stands as one of the world's leading experimental physicists.