Chemistry and Chemical Biology Professor named Sloan Fellow

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Kang-Kuen Ni was recently named an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, one of four Harvard affiliates to receive the honor.

Ni, a member of the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, plans on using the fellowship—which comes with a $50,000 grant—to continue pursuing her research in ultracold atoms and to construct a simpler and more time-efficient apparatus for creating an environment for the atoms. Ni believes that with a deeper understanding of ultracold molecules, other physical systems and processes like quantum simulation and superfluidity may be better understood.

Although Ni works as a professor in the Chemistry department, her research, which she began in graduate school at the University of Colorado Boulder, is more closely related to physics.

“We are interested in making molecules and atoms really cold because that’s when they behave more quantum mechanically,” Ni said earlier this month. “In the quantum regime, the particles act more like waves, but the rate of chemical reaction can be very similar for other reactions happening at room temperature.”

In recent years, Ni’s research collaboration, also known as Ni Group, has been particularly interested in finding a more efficient apparatus of producing ultracold atoms. Ni said the fellowship will help the development of this new method.

“It is certainly a great honor to receive such a prestigious fellowship, and especially knowing that a lot of really great scientists came before [me],” Ni said.

Ni added that the funding will, if all goes to plan, allow her to accelerate her research.

“In the past, the apparatus usually takes about five to six years to build. Now, we are hoping to have that time saved with the new apparatus. We hope by building the new apparatus, we could save a few years,” Ni said.

With the refined apparatus, Ni believes ultracold molecules may be easily recreated and studied to understand other physical systems.

“There is a lot of potential once we have this kind of molecule at this temperature to study,” she said. “The nice thing about ultracold atoms is that the electrons in metals are very dirty—there are a lot of non-ideal things. But, in our system, we have neutral atoms that can be cooled to cold temperatures and arranged in any way that we want.”

Ni said that the goal is to have the molecules serve as a model "for more exotic physical systems that we don't really understand."