Pratiti Deb, a postdoctoral researcher in Jack Harris’ group, has received a Yale Quantum Institute (YQI) Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Pratiti was born and grew up in Kolkata, India. She traveled to the United States to study at Cornell University, where she received a BA in physics with a minor in mathematics on a Tata Scholarship. While at Cornell, she experienced physics research for the first time, studying low-dimensional materials using electron microscopy. She received her PhD in physics from the University of Chicago, where she studied optically addressable molecular spin qubits. She worked on optimizing the spin and optical properties of the molecular qubits through a bottom-up approach using synthetic chemical design. At Yale, Pratiti has been studying non-Hermitian coupled oscillators as realized in a cavity optomechanical system. Specifically, she has been studying noise in these systems. Pratiti is invested in making the academic spaces she is a part of, and the world at large, more just and inclusive.
Pratiti commented, “I am very happy to receive the Yale Quantum Institute Fellowship as I continue my research on non-Hermitian systems in Jack Harris’ group. There are so many kinds of research expertise within the Yale Quantum Institute, as well as many opportunities for outreach and science communication. I am excited to be part of this community and participate in these opportunities.”
Jack Harris, professor of physics, commented, “It’s wonderful that Pratiti and her graduate work at Chicago have been recognized by the YQI with this fellowship. It will let us explore connections between ideas from qubit physics and non-Hermitian topology.”
The YQI Fellowship is awarded to young researchers who have demonstrated excellent research ability in their prior work and exceptional promise for future leadership in their field of quantum science. They represent the institute and have extra outreach responsibilities to help disseminate knowledge to the larger public.