News
Papers, awards, and group milestones
A running record since 2019. Press coverage and commentary are linked where they exist; the No Jargon page explains the papers themselves in plain language.
By year
Newest first.
2026
Our paper on Wigner polarons is published in Nature Physics. Featured in Phys.org and Maryland Today.
The NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation, in which You Zhou is a Senior Investigator, is renewed for Phase II.
Our collaborative paper on quantum anomalous Hall states, read out by attractive-polaron spectroscopy, is published in Physical Review X.
You Zhou is promoted to Associate Professor.
You Zhou receives the Junior Faculty Outstanding Research Award from the A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland.
Sabyasachi Das wins the 2026 FIAP Ken Hass Outstanding Student Paper Award at the APS March Meeting. Congratulations!
Our collaborative paper on exciton diffusion near an electronic Mott insulator is published in Science.
2025
Our paper on quantum-confined excitons in electrostatic moiré superlattices is published in Physical Review Letters.
Liuxin Gu wins the Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School, University of Maryland. Congratulations!
2024
Our collaborative paper on atomically thin optical cavities is published in Science Advances.
Our paper on the electrical control and transport of interlayer excitons is published in Physical Review Letters.
Our paper on the giant optical nonlinearity of Fermi polarons is published in Nature Photonics and highlighted by the Department of Energy Office of Science.
You Zhou receives the 2DM Young Scientist Award from the journal 2D Materials and IOP Publishing.
You Zhou is recognized at the 2024 Maryland Research Excellence Celebration.
2023
You Zhou receives the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
You Zhou gives an invited talk at the 18th International Conference on Optics of Excitons in Confined Systems (OECS 18) in Lecce, Italy.
You Zhou receives the Outstanding Young Scientist award from the Maryland Academy of Sciences and the Maryland Science Center.
You Zhou receives the IUPAP Early Career Scientist Prize in Structure and Dynamics of Condensed Matter and gives an invited talk at the APS March Meeting.
2022
You Zhou gives an invited talk at the 11th International Conference on Spontaneous Coherence in Excitonic Systems (ICSCE-11).
You Zhou receives the 2022 Department of Energy Early Career Award.
2021
You Zhou receives the 2022 NSF CAREER Award.
Our results on electron crystals are discussed in Quanta Magazine.
Our results on temperature-independent thermal emission are highlighted by the Department of Energy.
Our paper on bilayer Wigner crystals and their quantum melting in an atomically thin heterostructure is published in Nature.
Our arXiv preprint reporting Wigner crystals in 2D materials is recommended with a commentary by Thierry Giamarchi (University of Geneva) in the Journal Club for Condensed Matter Physics.
2020
We organize a virtual mini-symposium on Correlated Insulating States in Two Dimensions at the Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Harvard. Recordings.
Our paper on controlling the valley degree of freedom of excitons in twisted WSe2/WSe2 bilayers appears in Physical Review Letters and is highlighted in Nature Reviews Materials.
Our paper on tuning the radiative lifetime of excitons in monolayer MoSe2 is published in Physical Review Letters as an Editors’ Suggestion.
2019
You Zhou gives an invited talk at Fundamental Optical Processes in Semiconductors (FOPS 2019).