You Zhou Receives DOE 2022 Early Career Award

You Zhou Receives DOE 2022 Early Career Award

You Zhou, an assistant professor in the University of Maryland (UMD) Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), is the recipient of a 2022 Early Career Award offered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The DOE announced the selection of 83 scientists from across the nation who will each receive a portion of $110M in funding for various research topics as part of the DOE Office of Science’s Early Career Research Program. The program, now in its 13^th year, is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work. 

Zhou uses optical and electrical probes to study how electrons and holes crystalize and melt in structures made of atomically thin semiconductors.

“My plan for this project is to develop methods to investigate and control how these particles are arranged in space, subject to strong quantum mechanical effects,” said Zhou. “Using such a control, I will engineer novel exotic phases of matter, including states that features long-range quantum entanglement. These studies could significantly impact our understanding of a broad range of quantum materials.”

Zhou joined the UMD faculty in 2021 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where he received his doctoral degree in applied physics in 2015. Since then, Zhou has also been the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award and was named a Forbes “30 Under 30” in Science in 2018.

June 8, 2022