JILA Fellow Deborah Jin (1968–2016)
The American Physical Society is memorializing Fellow Deborah Jin by renaming the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP) Award for “Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Atomic, Molecular, or Optical Physics." Henceforward, the award will be called the Deborah Jin Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Atomic, Molecular, or Optical Physics.
On April 27, 2017, the Deborah Jin Memorial Endowment Campaign reached its goal of raising $100,000 to supplement the award’s existing endowment fund. The income from this endowment will help with travel expenses for finalists and provide funding to make it possible for a more diverse group of students to attend the annual DAMOP meeting.
The Deborah Jin Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Atomic, Molecular, or Optical Physics recognizes thesis research of outstanding quality and achievement in these areas of physics. The award consists of a $2,500 stipend, a certificate citing the achievements of the recipient, and a travel allowance of $1,000 for finalists to attend the DAMOP annual meeting. At this meeting, the recipient of each year’s award is selected and presented with the award.
JILA Fellows who donated to the recent endowment campaign include Eric Cornell, John Hall, Cindy Regal, Ana Maria Rey, Jun Ye, and James Faller. Many former JILA students and postdocs as well as NIST colleagues and friends of Jin also made generous contributions to the fund.
M Squared Lasers generously sponsors the DAMOP award, which will now honor Deborah Jin in perpetuity while recognizing young researchers.
The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. PFCs also include creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented groups, and outreach to the scientific community and general public.