Jo Lab | RICE

December 2025

Xu successfully defended. Congrats Dr. Yan!

October 2025

We thank the Gordon & Betty Moore Foudnation for their generous support through Experimental Physics Investigator (EPI) Award. [Rice press release]

August 2025

We welcome our members at Rice, Soham, Clark, Peng, Chengdong.

March - June 2025

Peter, Yifei, Yu-Jun and Mithilesh successfully defended. Congrats Dr. Pak, Dr. He, Dr. Liu, and Dr. Parit!

January 2025

Mingchen successfully defended. Congrats Dr. Huang!

December 2024

We are moving to Rice. Stay tuned.

June 30 2024

We thank the RGC for their continuous support through General Research Fund (GRF) in 2024/25.

September 15 2023

Dr. Chengdong He has been selected as the RGC Postdoc fellow, congratulations!

August 18 2023

Mengbo, Preston and Inho joined the group. Welcome!

June 30 2023

We thank the RGC for their continuous support through General Research Fund (GRF) in 2023/24.

March 30 2023

Yifei He, Yujun Liu, Ka Kwan Pak and E Zhao received Red Bird Academic Excellence Award, Congrats!

March 15 2023

We are thrilled to be awarded 30 for 30 research fund from HKUST.

November 1 2022

We thank the RGC for their continuous support through NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme in 2022/23 .

Auguest 25 2022

Peng and Haoting joined the group as a PhD student. Welcome!

June 30 2022

We thank the RGC for their continuous support through General Research Fund (GRF) in 2022/23 .

March 2022

We welcome Kevin who will join our team!

March 3 2022

Congratulations to James. He successfully defended!

February 11 2022

Peng Ren joined us as a visiting student from USTC. Welcome.

December 13-16 2021

We organized the four-day IAS program entitle "Quantum Simulation of Novel Phenomena with Ultracold Atoms and Molecules". We thank all speakers for delivering inspiring talks and also participatns!

Workshop link

December 05 2021

We welcome our new member, Yunchu. She will work in Yb Lab.

September 22 2021

We welcome Kingsley. He will work in Er Lab.

September 17 2021

Zejian successfully defended! Congrats to Dr. Ren!

August 26-27 2021

We organized th IAS Center for Qunatum Technologies Inaugural Workshop [Workshop link]

During the workshop, Prof. Jungsang Kim (Duke) gave a IAS Distinguished lecture.

August 12 2021

We welcome Yujun and Yifei!

August 10 2021

Chengdong successfully defended! Congrats to Dr. He!

June 30 2021

Thrilled to be awarded the RGC Research felllow.

Our group will be greatfully supported by RGC Research Fellowship scheme for the next 5 years.

July 22 2021

Welcome Xu Yan !

June 30 2021

We thank the RGC for their generous support via the General Research Fund (GRF) in 2021/22.

June 30 2021

Dr. Peng Chen has also received General Research Fund (GRF) in 2021/22. Congrats!

June 30 2021

Elnur successfully defended! Congrats to Dr. Hajiyev.

June 25 2021

We gratefully received Bridge Gap Fund from TTC/HKUST.

June 18 2021

Huijin jonied as a research assistant and MPhil student (from September). Welcome!

April 23 2021

Toby recieved the 2021 Mr. Armin & Mrs. Killian Kitchell UROP Award. Congrats!

March 08 2021

Yifei joined us as a visiting student from USTC. Welcome.

January 07 2021

We thank the RGC for their generous support via the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) in 2020/21.

December 01 2020

We received the Greater Bay Area Quantum Matter Joint Lab fund in 2020/21 with HKU and SCNU teams.

November 26 2020

Congratulations to Weijun Yuan for being awarded 2020 Academic Achievement medal!

September 1 2020

We weclcome new graduate students, Peter and Mithilesh, and a new undergraduate student Shi Quan!

July 23 2020

Chengdong delivered an invited talk about our synthetic topological matter at the annual PSHK meeting.

June 30 2020

We would like to thank the RGC for their generous support via the General Research Fund (GRF) in 2020/21.

April 28 2020

Chengdong won the School of Science Postgraduate Research Excellence Award!

Congrats!

April 1 2020

Weijun accepted the offer from the Columbia University, and was selected as a recepient of the Croucher Scholoarship!

Congrats!

March 2020

Our research works were recognized by School of Science Research Award, granted to Gyu-Boong.

Congrats to all!

January 2020

First ultracold dipolar bosons in Hong Kong!

October 1 2019

Dr. Chen was appointed as a research assistant professor. Congrats !

Septebmer 1 2019

Mingchen joined the group. Welcome.

Also congrats on being selected as a Huawek PhD fellow!

July 24 2019

Welcome Yinan Huang and Brian Yang for their short-term visit.

July 2019

Our recent work published in Nature Physics has been highlighted.

July 22-23 2019

We organized the Waterloo-HKUST workshop on Emerging quantum technologies in solid-state and atomic systems at IQC, Waterloo with Prof. Na Young Kim.

More information available here [Link].

June 28 2019

We would like to thank the RGC for their generous support via the General Research Fund (GRF) in 2019/20.

May 27- 31 2019

Chengdong, James and Zejian delivered a talk and presented posters at DAMOP in Milwaukee.

May 6-7 2019

We organized the IAS workshop Quantum Simulation of Novel Phenomena with Ultracold Atoms at IAS in HKSUT [ here ].

April 18 2019

Cold Erbium atoms available in MOTs.

April 16 2019

Mingchen joined us as a visiting student. Welcome.

March 12-14 2019

Gyu-Boong visited Fudan University, and gave an optics seminar. Great to have a fruitful discussion with Prof. Saijun Wu's group there.

Ferbruary 22-24 2019

Gyu-Boong delivered an invited talk at Asian Pacific Workshop on Trapped Quantum System (APTQS-2019) held at KAIST.

February 2019

Welcome Toby in Yb team.

February 2019

Dr. Jeongwon Lee selected as a IAS Junior Fellow! Congrats!

January 30 2019

Welcome Inho and Junwei.

January 30 2019

Bo successfully defended! Congrats to Dr. Song.

December 17 2018

Prof. Qi Zhou from Purdue visited us and gave a department seminar.

December 14 2018

Ms. Yue Cui visited us and shared the recent works done at Tsinghua.

November 19-20 2018

Prof. Xiaopeng Li from Fudan university visited us and gave a department seminar on incommensurate optica lattices.

October 22 2018

Welcome Dr. Jeongwon Lee!

October 2 2018

Welcome Dr. Peng Chen. He will wok with our second apparatus.

September 29 - Oct. 2 2018

Gyu-Boong delivered a talk in 7th International Workshop on Ultracold Group II Atoms in Beijing.

August 20 2018

Ziting and Entong joined the group as PhD students. Welcome!

August 1 2018

Welcome Brian from Univ. of Michigan.

August 1-4 2018

Gyu-Boong delivered an invited talk in 12th Young Scholars conference on cold atom physics.

July 22-27 2018

Chengdong, Elnur and James attended ICAP 2018 held in Spain. Chengdong and James presented a poster there.

July 1-5 2018

Gyu-Boong gave an invited talk in Nordita program: "Topological Matter Beyond the Ten-Fold Way" in Stockholm, Sweden.

June 29 2018

We would like to thank the RGC for their generous support via the General Research Fund (GRF) in 2018/19.

June 22 2018

Gyu-Boong gave an invited talk in Symposium on Quantum Computing Strategic Planning held in Seoul.

June 21 2018

Yueyang defended! Congrats!

June 20 2018

We received Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) in 2018/19.

June 19 2018

Welcome Jongmin from HKIS!

June 11-15 2018

Croucher summer school on Ultracold atoms had been hosted in CUHK. Chengdong, James and Zejian attended.

Chengdong gave a talk about our 2D spin-orbit coupling in ultracold fermions.

June 11-14 2018

Gyu-Boong gave a talk in The 8th International Symposium on Cold Atom Physics (ISCAP) in Wuhan.

June 9 2018

Dr. Simon Folling from LMU/MPI visited us and shared his exciting works on a strongly interacting two-orbital gas.

June 5 2018

Welcome Weijun!

May 28- 31 2018

Bo and Zejian presented a talk at DAMOP 2018.

May 17 2018

Prof. Zhi-Fang Xu from SUSTech visited us and gave a seminar on orbital physics in optical lattices.

May 14 2018

Prof. Na Young Kim from IQC/Waterloo visited us and shared exciting progresses in her exciton-polariton quantum simulator.

May 8 2018

Bo won the 2017/18 School of Science Postgraduate Research Excellence Award! Congrats!

March 15 2018

Welcome Jinho from UNIST!

February 25-28 2018

Prof. Ippei Danshita (Yukawa Institute of Theoretical Physics, Kyoto) visited us and shared exciting research works in Kyoto group.

February 1 2018

Welcome Ziting and Entong!

January 4 2018

Prof. Florian Schreck from the University of Amsterdam visited our lab giving a seminar on Sr atom laser and polar SrRb molecules being developed in his group.

December 18-19 2017

Gyu-Boong attended the Fudan Science and Innovation Forum and gave a seminar on our synthetic topological matter.

December 5-9 2017

Croucher conference on Frontiers of Cold Atom Physics was held at the University of Hong Kong.

James and Zejian presented a poster on our recent works during the conference. Gyu-boong also gave a talk on our development on synthetic topological matter using cold fermions.

December 1 2017

We would like to thank the RGC for their generous support via RGC-NSFC fund in 2017/18.

November 20-23 2017

Gyu-Boong attended the Novel Quantum States in Condensed Matter Physics 2017 and gave a seminar on our recent spin-orbit-coupled fermions in 2D lattices.

October 23-26 2017

Gyu-Boong visited the KTH and affiliated Albanova and Nordita centers hosted by Prof. Babaev, and gave a seminar on our recent spin-orbit-coupling works.

September 14-15 2017

Prof. V. Bagnato (Universidade de São Paulo) visited us and gave a inspiring IAS Distinguished lecture on Quantum turbulence in an atomic superfluid.

September 11 2017

Welcome our new member, Jerry!

September 4 2017

Prof. Dr. Matthias Weidemüller (Univ. of Heidelberg / USTC) visited our labs, and gave a seminar on his quantum optics work with Rydberg atoms.

July 17-21 2017

Gyu-Boong attended LPHYS17 meeting in Russia, and gave a talk about our observation of topological phases.

July 5 2017

Welcome Deokyoung from UNIST!

June 30 2017

We would like to thank the RGC for their generous support via the General Research Fund (GRF) in 2017/18.

June 20 2017

Welcome Kwangrae from POSTECH!

June 16-17 2017

Bo won the Best Oral Presentation Award in PSHK meeting.

James won the Best Poster Sparkler Award and the 1st runner-up Poster prize in PSHK meeting. Congrats to all!

June 5-9 2017

Bo, Chengdong and Gyu-Boong attended the DAMOP at Sacramento. Bo and Chendong presented our recent works on the SPT phase with ultracold fermions and all-optical spin-orbit coupling. They also presented the poster there.

May 16 2017

New laboratory space for Erbium Quantum Gases opens for business!

May 12 2017

Congratulations to Frank who was selected as HKUST Outstanding students.

Wish you continued success at the University of Chicago!

February 20 2017

Prof. Joseph Thywissen from Toronto visited us, and shared his p-wave experimental works with us.

February 13 2017

Bowen joined our group to complete his final year project. He will continue his graduate study in our lab.

February 3 2017

Prof. Xiong-Jung Liu from Peking University/ICQM visited us, and gave an invited seminar.

January 31 2017

Welcome our new member, Yee Ming.

November 24 2016

Prof. Jaewook Ahn from KAIST visited us and gave a IAS-SSCI lecture.

November 11 2016

Prof. S.Y Lan from NTU visited us and gave a seminar.

September 8 2016

Congratulations to Elnur who has received the Best Teaching Assistant Award 2016 in the department of physics!

August 22 2016

Gyuboong visited GIST and gave a physics colloquium.

August 19 2016

Congratulations to James who has received a HKPFS Fellowship [Link] !

Welcome back James Bojeong Seo!

August 8 2016

Welcome Dr. Fudong Wang.

August 1-4 2016

Shanchao, Wei and Gyu-Boong attended the KITPc conference on "Synthetic topological quantum matter", giving an invited talk on our recent SOC works.

July 24-29 2016

Gyu-boong attended the ICAP2016 in Seoul, chairing the hot topic session.

July 11 2016

Welcome our new member, Zejian Ren!

June 30 2016

We would like to thank the RGC for their generous support via the General Research Fund (GRF) in 2016/17.

June 25 2016

Welcome Xavier for his UROP research. bWelcome Ahreum from POSTECH, Korea!

May 22 2016

Bo and Gyu-Boong attended the DAMOP. Bo presented the poster on our SOC work.

May 9-13 2016

Elnur, Bo and Chengdong attended the Croucher summer school on ultracold atoms.

Prof. C.Vale, Prof. S.Tan and Prof. H. Pu visited our lab.

February 17 2016

Welcome our new member, Dovran!

December 11-19 2015

The Croucher-IAS conference "Topological phases in CM and cold atomic systems" was held at Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) at HKUST.

December 14 2015

Prof. Dan Stamper-Kurn gave a IAS-SSCI distinguished lecture on "Detecting and Coupling Quantum Objects with Quantum Light"

December 7 2015

We would like to thank the Croucher Foundation for their generous support of the our research work through the Croucher Innovation Award 2016 [Link].

September 23 2015

Gyu-Boong gave a physics colloquium talk at Fudan University and visited the group of Prof. Wu.

August 18 2015

Welcome our new graduate student Elnur.

August 3-8 2015

Gyu-Boong attended the 9th Young Scholars conference on cold atom physics and quantum information, and gave invited a talk.

July 21 2015

Gyu-Boong visited the group of Prof. Shau-Yu Lan at Nanyang Tech. University and gave a talk.

June 30 2015

We would like to thank the RGC for their generous support via the General Research Fund (GRF) in 2015/16.

June 8 2015

Yueyang and Gyu-Boong attended the DAMOP meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Yueyang presented about our versatile Yb apparatus in the poster session.

May 7 2015

Welcome a new Postodoc Dr.Wei Huang, and our new undergraduate student, Wing Kin.

March 11 2015

The first Quantum degenerate Fermi gas in Hong Kong!

February 23 2015

Welcome our new graduate student Chengdong.

January 13-15 2015

Gyu-Boong visited the ICQM at the Peking University, and gave an invited seminar.

January 8 2015

Dr. Wei Huang (SCNU) visited us giving a seminar about quantum manipulation of cold atoms via STIRAP.

January 1 2015

Welcome our new undergraduate student, Frank.

December 20 2014

Yb lab achieved Bose-Einstein condensation of Yb-174 atoms!

Ytterbium Quantum Simulator

November 10 2014

Gyu-Boong visited the department of physics at Seoul National University, and gave an invited seminar.

September 16-20 2014

Prof. Masahito Ueda from Univ.of Tokyo visited us, and gave a IAS-SSCI lecture about topological excitation in a Bose-Einstein condensation.

September 1 2014

Yb lab trapped atoms in a MOT!

August 31 2014

Farewell to Sam and Bojeong. Good luck with Sam's graduate research at the Osaka University in Japan.

August 2014

Welcome new graduate students, Bo to join the group.

Also Kwan joined as a research assistant. Welcome!

July 2014

Congrats. to Gyu-Boong for the Early Career Awards from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong.

June 30 2014

We would like to thank the RGC for their generous support via the Early Career Award in 2014/15.

June 27 2014

Prof.Jason Ho (OSU) and Prof.Hui Zhai (Tsinghua) visited our lab.

June 23 2014

Mr.James (Bojeong) Seo from UNIST joined us as a visiting student. Welcome.

June 23-28 2014

Gyu-Boong gave an invited talk/lecture at the IAS cold atoms workshop.

June 19 2014

Gyu-Boong gave an invited talk at the AMP meeting.

May.16 2014

Gyu-boong gave an invited talk in the cold atom workshop at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan.

April 26 2014

We had a joint meeting with Prof. Shengwang Du's (HKUST) and Prof. Dajun Wang's (CUHK) group.

Feb. 18 2014

Song Bo joined our group to complete his final year project. He will continue his graduate study in our lab from 2014 Fall.

Feb. 15 2014

Prof.Dana Anderson (JILA) gave a IAS seminar and visited our lab.

Dec. 17 2013

Gyu-boong gave an invited talk at Hong Kong Physics forum at the University of Hong Kong

Dec. 28 2013

David and Sam joined our group as an undergraduate research assistant.

Dec. 24 2013

We finally moved to our new lab located at RM4138!

Dec. 06 2013

Prof. Kihwan Kim (Tsinghua Univ.) visited and gave a seminar.

Nov. 23 2013

Shanchao was selected the 2013 Young Scientist Award from Hong Kong Institution of Science. Congrats!

Oct. 26 2013

We attended the Cold atom mini-workshop at CUHK, and Gyu-boong gave a talk

Sep. 01 2013

Dr. Shanchao Zhang officailly started his Postdoc career in our group.

Sep. 01 2013

Yueyang Zou joined our group as a graduate student.

Sep. 01 2013

Ultracold Quantum gas laboratory opens for business at the HKUST.

Aug.07 2013

Congrats to Dr.Zhang! Shanchao defended his Ph.d.