Ania Bleszynski Jayich is an American experimental physicist most known for developing novel sensing techniques that shed light on important
biological
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...
,
condensed matter
Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the su ...
, and
quantum mechanical
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...
systems. Bleszynski Jayich is the Bruker Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering in the Department of Physics at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
and Associate Director of the campus’s Materials Research Lab.
Biography
Bleszynski Jayich was raised in
Thousand Oaks, California
Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown. It is named af ...
. As the daughter of two physicists, she decided at an early age to dedicate her life to the subject as well. Bleszynski Jayich was also an elite tennis player growing up; she held the rank of No. 1 singles tennis in the United States for athletes 18-and-under. Bleszynski Jayich attended
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
and received a B.S. with honors in 2000 as a double major in mathematics and computational science, and physics. There, she conducted research in a collaboration with Stanford, NASA, and the Lockheed Corporation.
Steven Chu
Steven Chu Afterwards, as a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University, Bleszynski Jayich worked with Jack Harris to perform the first measurements of a counter-intuitive quantum mechanical effect in which rings of normal metal conductors are expected to support persistent currents. Her work, which was recognized in 2008 with a L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award, identified the minuscule magnetic fields these currents produce by using ultra-sensitive cantilever beams. Next, she expanded her postdoctoral collaboration to include
Mikhail Lukin
Mikhail Lukin (russian: Михаи́л Дми́триевич Луки́н); born 10 October 1971) is a Russian theoretical and experimental physicist and a professor at Harvard University. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Scien ...
of Harvard to couple
nitrogen-vacancy center
The nitrogen-vacancy center (N-V center or NV center) is one of numerous point defects in diamond. Its most explored and useful property is its photoluminescence, which allows observers to read out its spin-state. The NV center's electron spin, loc ...
s in diamond to nanomechanical resonators.
In 2010, Bleszynski Jayich joined the physics faculty of
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
. Th Jayich Lab is the Quantum Sensing and Imaging Group at UCSB, specializing in quantum effects on the nanoscale. Of particular interest to the Jayich Lab is the nanoscale imaging of spin and charge in condensed matter systems. These experiments have applications in quantum and classical computing and biology. Bleszynski Jayich is a principal investigator of the first
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
Quantum Foundry, based at UCSB. The UC Santa Barbara NSF Quantum Foundry is a major initiative (20 faculty, $25M) seeking to develop new materials with quantum applications.
Honors and awards
* NSF CAREER Award, 2014
* Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), 2012
* Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, 2010
* L’Oreal Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women in Science (2008)