School Notes: School of Engineering & Applied Science
January/February 2026

Professor wins Nobel for quantum research

Michel H. Devoret, the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics at Yale University, who has spent his career probing the intricate dynamics of qubits and quantum information, won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking work in quantum computing. He is currently on faculty at the University of California–Santa Barbara. Devoret, who is a founding member of the Yale Quantum Institute, shares the prize with John Clarke of the University of California–Berkeley and John M. Martinis of the University of California–Santa Barbara. The Nobel committee cited the trio’s research together in the 1980s that “revealed quantum physics in action.”

Making materials with electrified vapor

Vapor-phase synthesis, a technique used to create very pure and scalable nanomaterials and coatings, has great promise for the electronic, optical, aerospace, energy and environment, and semiconductor industries. But the process can be tricky and requires pricey equipment that’s difficult to maintain. A research team led by Professor Liangbing Hu has eliminated these complications by using a form of electrified vapor that instantly vaporizes and then rapidly cools the material. This results in pure nanomaterial products and thin films with excellent compositional and structural control. The outcome is a system that’s quicker, cheaper, and more versatile. 

Professor named Hrabowski Scholar

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has named Cristina Rodríguez, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, a 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. The program recognizes outstanding early career faculty who have the potential to become leaders in their research fields and to create lab environments in which everyone can thrive. Each scholar receives up to $8.6 million over a potential ten-year period, which includes full salary, benefits, a substantial research budget, and funding for scientific equipment. Rodríguez develops novel advanced optical imaging technologies that allow scientists to visualize biological processes as they occur in living systems. These innovations enable her team to observe neuronal circuits in the rodent spinal cord in real time, revealing how neural networks process sensory information from the body.