Prof. Z graduated from MIT in physics and math, and received her physics PhD at Harvard University where her thesis work involved precise spectroscopy of helium atoms. She came to Columbia in 2008, after a few years of learning about optical lattice atomic clocks in Boulder, Colorado. She teaches various subjects such as mechanics, electromagnetism, and atomic physics, and her research interests involve precision measurements and quantum optics, particularly state-of-the-art optical spectroscopy with diatomic molecules.

Jingjing obtained her Master's degree from Tufts University and PhD from North Carolina State University. Her PhD study focused on engineering the Hamiltonians of degenerate quantum gases as well as studying the evolution of spin density and the emergence of spin correlations in a synthetic lattice in energy space. She joined ZLab in August of 2024 and is currently working on the molecular lattice clock experiment based on laser-cooled strontium atoms, and in particular, preparing to measure vibrational molecular isotope shifts at the highest precision.

Hanwen obtained his PhD in physical chemistry from Brown University, where he developed a cryogenic ion trap to produce cold molecular ions for high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy. He joined ZLab in 2025 to extend his expertise to the field of ultracold molecules. His research focuses on laser cooling and trapping of calcium monohydride (CaH) molecules, and devising state-controlled ultracold chemistry and photochemistry experiments with this new system.

Before coming to Columbia, Jianhui studied physics at the National University of Singapore. As an undergraduate, he developed an interest in AMO physics while working on building an optical lattice of lithium atoms at the Centre for Quantum Technologies. Currently, Jianhui is excited about the potential of testing fundamental physics with molecules. He is working with the CeNTREX collaboration, situated at Argonne National Lab, looking for the electric dipole moment of the proton and hadronic CP violation effects in cold thallium fluoride molecule.

Perry completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2022. During his undergrad, he worked in high-energy nuclear physics research at RHIC, then transitioned to work on searching for axion-like dark matter using nuclear magnetic resonance. The idea of testing fundamental physics with tabletop experiments motivated him to pursue precision measurements with AMO physics. At Zlab, Perry is working on the search for CP violation with cold thallium fluoride molecules. He is excited to develop the CeNTREX project and use it to look for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Ben completed his undergraduate degree at UC Santa Barbara in 2023, where he carried out experiments on high-precision microwave spectroscopy of molecules and the formation kinetics of water dimers. After joining ZLab at Columbia, Ben has been working on direct laser cooling of molecules. This has resulted in the first magneto-optical trap (MOT) of calcium monohydride (CaH) molecules. Ben is interested in further cooling the molecules and subsequently using AMO techniques to explore new directions in quantum chemistry and photochemistry.

Prior to joining ZLab, Wenwei was an undergraduate at the university of Science and Technology of China (USTC). She was always fascinated by interactions between light and matter, as well as precision measurements and searches for beyond-Standard-Model physics. As an undergrad she worked on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, with a goal of searching for dark matter. As a PhD student at Columbia, Wenwei is working on a new strontium molecular clock apparatus.

Gisung completed his undergraduate degree at Pusan National University in South Korea, where he conducted quantum sensing experiments using quantum light generated from hot rubidium ensembles. As a PhD student at ZLab, he is exploring new physics with ultracold strontium molecules. His research focuses on precision tests of fundamental physics and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. More broadly, he is interested in using controllable quantum systems to advance metrology, sensing, and ultracold chemistry.