USC Dornsife physicist honored with DOE Early Career award

Yunqiu Kelly Luo, Gabilan Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been named a 2024 Early Career Research Program awardee by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Luo is one of 91 researchers across the country selected for this distinction, which comes with a five-year research grant to support her innovative work in experimental condensed matter physics. The DOE awarded a total of $138 million to all recipients in this year’s program.

Luo’s research focuses on understanding new, atomically thin magnetic materials that could lead to more efficient memory and computing devices. Her work, funded by this award, will explore how ultrafast spin torque effects in these materials could be harnessed for next-generation technologies, such as spin-based quantum computing and quantum sensing hardwares.

The DOE’s Early Career Research Program is designed to support scientists in the initial stages of their careers, helping them pursue pioneering discoveries. “Investing in cutting-edge research and science … is essential to maintaining America’s role as a global innovation leader,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in the DOE’s announcement of the awards.