Dr. Lene V. Hau

 

    Dr. Lene Vestergaard Hau is a faculty member of the Harvard Biophysics Program. Dr. Hau grew up in Denmark and had developed an interest in math and quantum mechanics at a young age. She has a bachelor’s degree in math, a master’s degree in physics, and a doctorate in physics. In 1994, Dr. Hau developed a “candlestick” that was able to draw sodium atoms from very hot sodium metal. She then cooled the atoms using lasers until they were 50 billionths of a degree above absolute zero. This experiment became useful for another experiment in 1999, in which she was able to slow light from 186, 282 miles per second to 38 miles per hour!! She and her team did this by shooting a beam of light through the cold sodium atoms. She was then able to store the light for a fraction of a second by converting it to a matter wave, which is a particle that has wavelike properties. Two years later, she was able to stop light completely before releasing it. This research was significant because of its potential application to telecommunications and computers. 

    Currently, Dr. Hau is working on a project which involves physics, nanoscience, and molecular and synthetic biology. This project involves harnessing the energy derived from photosynthetic proteins to power engineered nanoscale, genetically engineered proteins. This project has applications for creating new methods of biofuel production.

References

https://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/hau

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lene-Hau

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.6.20171113a/full/