Jin receives L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science award

Deborah Jin (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado)

Deborah Jin, an adjoint professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has been awarded the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science award.

Jin also is a fellow of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NIST. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate students and was one of five recipients who each will receive $100,000 at an awards ceremony in Paris next March. She was the only recipient in North America.

Jin was cited by the awards jury “for having been the first to cool down molecules so much that she can observe chemical reactions in slow motion, which may help further understanding of molecular processes that are important for medicine or new energy sources.” The long-sought milestone was achieved at JILA in 2008.

Jin and other 2013 laureates were honored for demonstrating exceptionally original approaches to fundamental research in the physical sciences. The awards jury was chaired by Ahmed Zewail, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in chemistry and a professor of chemistry and physics at the California Institute of Technology.

Jin has been an adjoint professor of physics at CU-Boulder since 1997. She earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from Princeton University and a doctorate from the University of Chicago.

In 2005, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007. She also has received numerous other awards, including the William Proctor Prize for Scientific Achievement in 2009, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics in 2008, the I.I Rabi Prize of the American Physical Society in 2005, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship also known as the “genius grant” in 2003, and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2000.

Established in 1998, the L’Oréal-UNESCO partnership is a long-term commitment to recognizing women in science and supporting scientific vocations. The For Women in Science program includes international, national and regional fellowships and an international network of more than 1,300 women in 106 countries.