Lene Hau

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Lene Vestergaard Hau (born Vejle, Denmark November 13, 1959) is a Danish physicist. In 1999, she led a team from Harvard University who succeeded in slowing a beam of light to about 17 metres per second, and, in 2001, was able to momentarily stop a beam. She was able to achieve this by using a superfluid.

In 1989 she accepted a two-year appointment as a postdoctoral fellow in Physics at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Aarhus in Denmark in 1991. Her formalized training is in theoretical physics but her interest moved to experimental research in an effort to create a new form of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. In 1991 she joined the Rowland Institute for Science at Cambridge as a scientific staff member. Since 1999 she has held the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics at Harvard.

Dr. Hau’s scientific and service contributions have been recognized through honors that include:

the MacArthur Fellow 2001-2006;
the NKT award, awarded by the Danish Physical Society, 2001;
the Ole Rømer Medal, awarded by the president of the University of Copenhagen, 2001;
an Honorary Degree, Æreshåndværker Kjøbenhavns Håndværkerforening, awarded in the presence of Her Majesty, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Copenhagen, 2001;
recipient of the Samuel Friedman Rescue Award, awarded by the Friedman Foundation, University of California, Los Angeles, 2001;
recipient of the Year 2000 Award from the Top Danmark Foundation, Copenhagen Denmark, 2000;
recipient of the J.C. Jacobsen 200 Year Anniversary Award, awarded by the Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark, 1989;
recipient of the Research Fellowship, 1986-1989, awarded by the Faculty of Sciences, University of Aarhus, Denmark.