Rate My Professor Yu'ao Chen

Yu'ao Chen is a Professor of Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), affiliated with the Division of Quantum Physics and Quantum Information. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from USTC and received his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg in 2008. Following his doctorate, Chen conducted postdoctoral research at institutions including the University of Mainz, the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, and Ludwig-Maximilians University, where he served as project leader for experiments on ultracold bosonic quantum gases in optical super-lattices.

Chen joined USTC as a professor in 2011 after being selected as a Youth Thousand Talent Plan scholar. He has served as Executive Dean of the School of Physical Sciences. His research focuses on experimental quantum information processing, including the manipulation of photons and atoms, multi-photon entanglement, long-distance free-space quantum communication, atomic-ensemble-based quantum memory, and ultra-cold atoms in optical lattices for quantum many-body physics. Chen has received awards such as the Fresnel Prize for Fundamental Aspects in 2013, the Tan Kah Kee Young Scientist Award, the Qiu Shi Outstanding Youth Scholar award, and recognition as part of the team awarded the 2015 State Nature Science First Class Award. He is also a 2023 AAA Awardee. His work has resulted in numerous high-impact publications and significant citations in the field of quantum physics.