Tanya Zelevinsky

Tanya Zelevinsky is a professor of physics at Columbia University. Her research focuses on high-precision spectroscopy of cold molecules for fundamental physics measurements, including molecular lattice clocks, ultracold molecule photodissociation, as well as cooling and quantum state manipulation techniques for diatomic molecules with the goal of testing the Standard Model of particle physics. Zelevinsky graduated from MIT in 1999 and received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2004 with Gerald Gabrielse as her thesis advisor. Subsequently, she worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) with Jun Ye on atomic lattice clocks. She joined Columbia University as an associate professor of physics in 2008.[1] Professor Zelevinsky became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2018 and received the Francis M. Pipkin Award in 2019.[1]

Tanya Zelevinsky
Alma materMIT and Harvard University
Known forHigh-precision spectroscopy and Quantum Optics
AwardsFellow of the American Physical Society (2018)
Francis M. Pipkin Award Recipient (2019)

Research

Zelevinsky is known for her pioneering experiments with ultracold diatomic molecules of strontium, an alkaline earth element. Together with Jun Ye, Zelevinsky was the first to use laser light to create this class of molecules in an optical lattice at microkelvin temperatures, and measured their molecular binding energies to a greater precision than was previously achievable in molecular beam studies.[2] This has the potential to furnish an ensemble of molecular clocks where quantized molecular vibrations determine the 'ticking' rate.[3] Together with Robert Moszyński and her students, Zelevinsky settled a long-standing question about the role of quantum interference in the angular patterns of molecular photofragments. At a temperature of tens of millikelvin, the work constitutes one of the first clear demonstrations of quantum photochemistry.[4] Additionally, Zelevinsky is exploring ways to experimentally cool molecules in order to manipulate and study them using a combination of buffer gas cooling and laser cooling with the goal of creating magneto-optical traps of exotic gases. Zelevinsky is also one of the principal investigators of the CeNTREX collaboration with David DeMille to search for the deformation in the shape of atomic nuclei known as a Schiff moment using the thallium fluoride molecule.

References
  1. "2019 Francis M. Pipkin Award". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  2. "Researchers combine quantum expertise to advance research in ultracold molecules". phys.org. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  3. "A molecular clock for testing fundamental forces" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  4. "Quantum control of light-induced reactions". Retrieved 2020-08-17.
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