Yacoby elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Amir Yacoby, Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics at Harvard University, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Yacoby is one of 252 new members, including nine Harvard faculty, elected this year.

“We are honoring the excellence of these individuals, celebrating what they have achieved so far, and imagining what they will continue to accomplish,” said David Oxtoby, President of the American Academy. “The past year has been replete with evidence of how things can get worse; this is an opportunity to illuminate the importance of art, ideas, knowledge, and leadership that can make a better world.”

Yacoby holds appointments in the Physics Department and at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and is a member of the National Academy of Science.

Yacoby’s research explores topological quantum computing, interacting electrons in layered materials, spin-based quantum computing and the development of novel quantum sensing probes such as scanning single electron transistors and color centers in diamond for unraveling the underlying microscopic physics of correlated electron systems. 

Yacoby is leading a research area at the Department of Energy’s Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where his work will focus on using quantum sensing techniques to explore quantum materials.

Yacoby is a member and sits on the executive committee of the Harvard Quantum Initiative and a participant in the Center for Integrated Quantum Materials (CIQM), a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, based at SEAS. CIQM is dedicated to studying new quantum materials with "non-conventional" properties that could transform signal processing and computation.