Julia Mikhailova is one of four Princeton University researchers to win a Betty and Gordon Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative award. The grant will support her work on laser-based sensing technologies.
The Moore Foundation recently announced 21 such awards for 2023. Each investigator will receive $1,250,000 over the next five years to advance the scientific frontier in experimental physics. The other Princeton researchers receiving the award are Nathalie de Leon, Barry Rand and Jeff Thompson, all in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Mikhailova, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, investigates optical harmonic generation in plasmas and solids, and develops new ionization-based optical components. Optical harmonics can serve as a diagnostic tool for high-energy-density plasmas and new quantum materials, as well as a source of intense ultrafast x-ray radiation that can be used to produce entangled x-ray light for quantum metrology. Mikhailova’s previous honors include an Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, an Alfred Rheinstein Faculty Award for excellence in teaching and scholarship from Princeton, and an Alexander von Humbolt Research Fellowship. In 2021, she was named a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. She joined Princeton in 2013.