Dr. Lene Hau is Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics at Harvard University joins Ozarks at Large to discuss the 4:00 A.M. moment when they slowed down light in a laboratory. Dr. Hau presented her work on "The Science and Art of Taming Light" last week as part of the Robert D. Maurer Distinguished Lecture Series by the Department of Physics in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas.
Hau has contributed to a wide variety of research fields with her research on theoretical condensed matter physics. Most recently, Hau has shifted her attention to biophysics, alongside experimental and theoretical optical and atomic physics.
In addition to her many research contributions, Hau has received several prestigious awards for her work. She was named a 2001 MacArthur Fellow and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
Hau's revolutionary work on storing light has produced astonishing results. Her team succeeded in slowing a single pulse of light down 50 million times lower than the normal light speed, with the capability of extinguishing light in one part of space and reviving it in another.
