Ali Yazdani is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Princeton University, Co-director of the Princeton Quantum Initiative(Link is external), and Director of the Princeton Center for Complex Materials(Link is external). He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in physics and later earned his Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University in 1995. He taught physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and was a visiting professor at Stanford University. He started his own independent research group at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign before joining Princeton University's Physics Department in 2005. His areas of research are in advancing our understanding of emergent quantum phenomena by application and development of high-resolution microscopy techniques to directly visualize highly entangled quantum states of matter. He has been recognized by several awards and honors including a Humboldt research award and was elected a Fellow of American Physical Society, American Association for Advancement of Science, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the APS awarded him the 2023 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize(Link is external), which recognizes outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics.

Positions

James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor
Princeton University
2024
Co-Director
Princeton University
2023
Professor of Physics
Princeton University
2005
Director
Princeton Center for Complex Materials
2015 - 2024
Class of 1909 Professor of Physics
Princeton University
2015 - 2024
Professor of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
2004 - 2005
Associate Professor of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
2003 - 2004
Visiting Professor of Applied Physics
Stanford University
2003 - 2004
Assistant Professor of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
1997 - 2003

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow physics
IBM Research - Almaden
1997
Ph.D. Physics
Stanford University
1995
M.S. Physics
Stanford University
1991
B.A. (summa cum laude) Physics
University of California Berkeley
1989