Jelena Vučković facts for kids

Jelena Vučković is a professor at Stanford University. She was born in Serbia and is now an American citizen. From August 2021 to June 2023, she was the head of the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford.

Professor Vučković leads a special lab called the Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics (NQP) Lab. This lab studies tiny light particles and how they can be used in new technologies. She is also part of other important research groups at Stanford.

She helped start the Q-FARM initiative, which focuses on quantum science. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She is also a Fellow of several important scientific groups, like The Optical Society and the American Physical Society.

Her research explores how light behaves at a very small scale. This includes nanophotonics, which is about controlling light with tiny structures. She also works on quantum information and quantum optics, which are key for future computers and communication.

Early Life and Education

Jelena Vučković was born in Niš, Serbia. She went to the University of Niš for her early studies.

She later moved to the United States. She earned her master's degree in 1997. In 2002, she received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

After getting her PhD, she worked at Stanford University. She became an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department in 2003.

Career and Research at Stanford

Professor Vučković is now the Jensen Huang Professor in Global Leadership at Stanford. She teaches Electrical Engineering and also works in Applied Physics.

She is the main leader of the Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics (NQP) Lab at Stanford. Her lab is part of several other research centers.

Her work focuses on exciting areas like nanophotonics. This field deals with how light interacts with materials at a tiny, tiny level. She also researches quantum information and quantum optics. These areas are important for developing new technologies.

Her lab also works on Integrated quantum photonics. This means putting many light-based devices onto a single tiny chip. They also use "photonics inverse design." This is a smart way to use computers to design new light-controlling devices.

Spins Software and Patents

Professor Vučković's lab created a special computer program called Spins. This software helps design tiny light devices automatically. It uses advanced math to find the best possible designs.

These designs lead to devices that work better and are much smaller. Professor Vučković is also a co-founder of Spins Photonics Inc. This company helps bring the new design methods to other scientists and engineers. She holds 20 patents for her inventions.

Leading the Electrical Engineering Department

From August 2021 to June 2023, Professor Vučković was the "Fortinet Founders" chair. This meant she was the head of the Stanford Department of Electrical Engineering. She also continued to lead her NQP lab during this time.

Awards and Honors

Professor Vučković has received many important awards for her work. These awards show how much her research has helped science and technology.

• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), (2006)
• Humboldt Prize (2010)
• Marko V. Jaric award for outstanding achievements in physics (2012)
• Hans Fischer Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, Technical University Munich, Germany (2013)
• Fellow, American Physical Society (2015)
• Fellow, The Optical Society (2015)
• Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (2018)
• Distinguished Scholar, Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (2019)
• Recipient, IET A F Harvey Prize (2019)
• Recipient, James P. Gordon Memorial Speakership, Optica (2020)
• Mildred Dresselhaus Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2021)
• Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow, United States Department of Defense (2022)
• Member, National Academy of Sciences (2023)