Alumnus Named Packard Fellow

A Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) alumnus is among the latest group of researchers to receive a prestigious Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering.

Norman Yao, a fellow from 2009 to 2013, will receive $875,000 per year for five years to support his condensed matter physics research at the University of California, Berkeley.

The foundation chose 18 early-career scientists for this year’s fellowship class. The grants give researchers maximum flexibility to pursue innovative topics that could improve people’s lives and enhance our understanding of the universe, a Packard Foundation release says.

Yao develops and uses theoretical, numerical and experimental tools to explore new phenomena in complex quantum mechanical systems of atoms, ions and molecules. His group recently gained attention by demonstrating the creation of time crystals. Standard crystals, such as gems, are comprised of atomic structures that repeat in space. The structure of time crystals repeats in time, returning periodically to the same state, a UC Berkeley release says.

UC Berkeley produced this video about Yao’s work.