The Chicago Maroon 《芝加哥大學學報》
Meet the New Named and Distinguished Service Professors Sustaining the Life of the Mind
32 UChicago faculty were appointed to distinguished or named professorships on January
The Maroon sat down with eight of the professors—whose disciplines span the physical and biological sciences, the humanities, and law—to understand why they came to UChicago, how their work here has changed over time, and how they spend their lives outside of academia.
1月 1 日，芝加哥大學 32 位教職員被新任命為特聘教授和傑出服務教授。 《芝加哥大學學報》採訪了其中八位，了解他們為什麼來到芝加哥大學，他們在這裡的工作發生了哪些變化，以及他們在學術界之外的生活。
金政. Cheng Chin, Horace B. Horton Professor in the Department of Physics and the College.
When Cheng Chin came to the University of Chicago in 2005, he had no colleagues in his field. “I was the first one working on experimental atomic physics here,” he told the Maroon. Interest has since developed, and Chin now leads a 22-researcher lab—the Chin Lab—dedicated to the study of ultracold atoms and molecules.
Chin’s work is focused on “exploring novel quantum phenomena,” both by trying to find experimental evidence for theoretical conjectures and by “trying to link different complex phenomena” observed across different fields. This work is often unpredictable: in 2017, the Chin Lab unexpectedly discovered Bose “fireworks,” the spontaneous emission of star-patterned jets of atoms from a Bose-Einstein condensate. But expected or not, Chin says his projects expand humanity’s fundamental understanding of the world and can help develop practical applications for abstract science.
According to Chin, UChicago is well-positioned to “push for interdisciplinary research.” Recently, he has worked with the Department of Molecular Engineering to advance quantum networking technology that could be crucial to the future of quantum computing.
Chin also works to bring in more young people to physics, such as by organizing exchange programs to bring UChicago students to Taiwan and vice versa.
When he’s not working, Chin likes to play the piano to relax, go to the lakefront trail, or explore Chicago’s downtown.
金政，物理系和文理學院霍勒斯·B·霍頓講席教授
2005年金政來到芝加哥大學時，他的領域還沒有同事。 「我是這裡第一個從事實驗原子物理研究的人，」他告訴《芝加哥大學學報》（Maroon）。此後，人們對這一領域的興趣日益濃厚，如今金政領導著一個擁有22名研究人員的實驗室——金政實驗室——致力於超冷原子和分子的研究。
金政的研究重點是“探索新的量子現象”，既包括尋找理論猜想的實驗證據，也包括“嘗試將不同領域觀察到的各種複雜現象聯繫起來”。這項工作常常出人意料：2017年，金政實驗室意外發現了玻色“煙火”，即玻色-愛因斯坦凝聚體自發發射星狀原子射流的現象。但無論是否在預料之中，金政表示，他的研究計畫拓展了人類對世界的基本認知，並有助於將抽象的科學應用於實際應用。
根據金教授介紹，芝加哥大學在「推動跨學科研究」方面具有得天獨厚的優勢。近期，他與分子工程系合作，致力於推動量子網路技術的發展，這項技術對未來的量子運算至關重要。
金教授也致力於吸引更多年輕人投身物理學領域，例如組織交換項目，促成芝加哥大學學生赴台學習，反之亦然。
工作之餘，金教授喜歡彈鋼琴放鬆身心，漫步在湖濱步道，或探索芝加哥市中心。