[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 141 (Wednesday, October 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2004-E2005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        RECOGNIZING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF DEBORAH SHIU-LAN JIN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 8, 2003

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
accomplishments of Deborah Jin and to submit for the Record two recent 
articles from the Colorado Daily and the Washington Post describing 
these accomplishments. Dr. Jin is one of eighteen scholars chosen as 
MacArthur fellows, awards granted annually by the John D. and Catherine 
T. MacArthur Foundation. 4a
  Deborah Shiu-lan Jin is a physicist at the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology (NIST) and a fellow at the Joint Institute for 
Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), a joint institute of NIST and the 
University of Colorado.
  Dr. Jin used lasers and magnetic traps to identify a new quantum gas 
by cooling a vapor of fermions--one of the two basic types of quantum 
particles--to a temperature less than a millionth of a degree above 
absolute zero. Her discovery was named one of the top ten scientific 
advances of the year in 1999 by the journal Science. Dr. Jin is 
internationally recognized as a major force in the world of extremely 
low temperature physics.
  I am proud of Dr. Jin, and I am proud of the institutions she 
represents. Dr. Jin is one of four University of Colorado-Boulder 
professors who have received the MacArthur fellowship since it began in 
1981. Her colleagues at JILA include Dr. Eric Cornell of NIST and Dr. 
Carl Weiman of the University of Colorado, who created a new state of 
matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate, in 1995 and won a Nobel Prize for 
their discovery two years ago. Clearly, Colorado's excellent 
institutions make it possible for scientists to conduct their path-
breaking research.
  Every year the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation rewards 
a small group of exceptionally creative individuals by naming them 
MacArthur Fellows. The foundation gives fellowship awards to those 
individuals who are pursuing unique approaches to their fields of study 
and those taking intellectual, scientific, and cultural risks.
  Clearly, these criteria describe NIST's awardee Dr. Jin, who has 
broken new ground in her field. Dr. Jin is an incredibly talented and 
driven scientist who is regarded with great esteem by her colleagues, 
one of whom predicted that Dr. Jin has what it takes to be one of the 
most innovative scientists of the century. I am certain that the 
foundation made an excellent choice in awarding Dr. Jin this 
prestigious fellowship. I am honored to represent such an exemplary 
individual.

                [From the Colorado Daily, Oct. 7, 2003]

                  CU Professor Scoops the Genius Grant

                         (By Sarah-Jane Wilton)

       Imagine being given a check for $500,000 and being told to 
     go spend it however you choose, with no strings attached. For 
     CU adjoint assistant professor Deborah Jin, winning a 
     MacArthur fellowship means just that.
       The announcement came Sunday that Jin is among the 18 elite 
     winners of the 2003 award, which annually honors talented 
     individuals who have had ``extraordinary originality and 
     dedication from their creative pursuits'' and shown ``a 
     market capacity for self-direction.''
       The fellowship, commonly known as the ``genius grant,'' is 
     awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 
     and is intended to encourage people of outstanding talent to 
     pursue their own creative, intellectual and professional 
     inclinations.
       Each awardee is presented with a ``no strings attached'' 
     stipend of $500,000 paid out in quarterly installments over 
     five years.
       Jin, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and 
     Technology (NIST), created a new quantum gas that was named 
     one of the top-10 scientific advances of the year by the 
     journal Science, in 1999.
       With the assistance of graduate student Brian Demarco, Jin 
     cooled a vapor of fermions--one of the two basic types of 
     quantum particles, along with bosons--to a temperature less 
     than a millionth of a degree

[[Page E2005]]

     above absolute zero using lasers and magnetic traps. The 
     result was a quantum state in which atoms behave like waves.
       James Faller, chief of NIST's quantum physics division, 
     said he was delighted at Jin's achievement.
       ``Debbie has an inquiring and creative mind. She is a super 
     scientist and an incredible human being,'' said Faller. 
     ``During the five-year term of her fellowship, I'm certain 
     that the MacArthur Foundation will be incredibly proud of 
     her.''
       A graduate of Princeton University in 1990, Jin went on to 
     receive a Ph.D from the University of Chicago in 1995.
       She then spent two years as a National Research Council 
     research associate with NIST, working at the Joint Institute 
     for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA).
       After her post-doctorate assignment, Jin was hired as a 
     NIST physicist and assistant professor adjoint.
       Jin's colleagues in the physics department were thrilled to 
     hear she had been honored, according to Katharine Gebbie, 
     director of NIST's physics laboratory.
       Gebbie described Jin as having the intellect and drive to 
     be one of the most innovative scientists of the century.
       ``Within two years of her appointment at NIST, (Jin) has 
     seen the first evidence of degeneracy in a fermionic atomic 
     gas, and she has run it from there,'' said Gebbie. ``This is 
     a great honor for Debbie, for JILA, for the physics 
     laboratory and for NIST.''
       Jin is among four CU-Boulder professors who have received 
     the fellowship since it began in 1981.
       Others include Daniel Jurafsky of computational linguistics 
     in 2002, Norman Pace of molecular, cellular and developmental 
     biology in 2001, and Patricia Limerick of history in 1995.
       CU-Boulder chancellor Richard Byyny said it was a 
     remarkable fourth time in four years that he had the honor to 
     congratulate a Boulder faculty member receiving the MacArthur 
     award.
       ``Deborah Jin is an outstanding physicist and a valued 
     teacher of undergraduate and graduate students, and this 
     recognition is another example of the benefits of partnering 
     with Boulder laboratories,'' said Byyny.
                                  ____


                [From the Washington Post, Oct. 7, 2003]

                       Hot Work, Low Temperature

                             (By T.R. Reid)

       Boulder, CO.--After her sophomore year at Princeton, 
     Deborah Jin landed a summer job with the federal government, 
     doing research at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 
     Maryland.
       ``That summer pretty much settled things,'' Jin recalls 
     now. ``I think I knew from that point on that I was going to 
     be a physicist.''
       And one other career choice was settled as well, although 
     Jin said she didn't realize it back in the summer of 1988. 
     She would pursue her research as a federal employee, working 
     in government labs where some of the world's most advanced 
     work in atomic physics and super-cooled, super-conducting 
     materials is going forward.
       One could say that turned out to be a wise choice. For 
     Deborah Shiu-lan Jin, now a fellow with the National 
     Institute of Standards and Technology here, has emerged as a 
     major force in the world of extremely low temperature 
     physics. She has won a string of scientific awards. On 
     Sunday, her achievements and potential were recognized in the 
     form of a $500,000 prize from the MacArthur Fellows Program.
       Jin--who works amid a jungle of piping, gauges, hoses and 
     computer monitors at a lab operated jointly by NIST and the 
     University of Colorado--said the U.S. government has proved 
     to be a near-perfect employer for a young scientist 
     working at the extreme leading edge of her field.
       ``I'm sort of isolated from the academic politics,'' the 
     34-year-old wife and mother said, ``and being a federal 
     employee frees you up from the teaching load and the other 
     requirements they have for [university] faculty. I don't have 
     to wait the six years to find out if I'm going to get tenure. 
     The government just leaves you alone to do your work.''
       Even in a period of overstretched federal budgets, Jin said 
     she has been able to obtain most of the equipment and 
     research help she needs. ``Frankly, the people on the 
     university side are having more trouble than we are. The 
     state budget crunch has been really severe.''
       The physicist is so wrapped up in her lab work that she is 
     one of the few federal employees anywhere who doesn't know 
     her pay grade. ``It's a GS-something,'' she said. ``I guess I 
     ought to know.'' NIST said that Jin holds a rank of ZP-5 in 
     the agency's specialized pay system, the equivalent of a GS-
     15.
       Jin said she doesn't pay much attention to that because 
     ``it doesn't make much difference in a research job. I have 
     my lab and my grad students and I work closely with my 
     colleagues, and that doesn't really depend on what rank you 
     are.''
       What does matter in a scientific field is results, and 
     Jin's lab, the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, 
     has been producing them in spades. Her colleagues include two 
     physicists--Eric A. Cornell of NIST and Carl E. Wieman of 
     Colorado--who created a new state of matter (``the Bose-
     Einstein condensate'') in 1995 and won a Nobel Prize for it 
     six years later.
       The Bose-Einstein work involved cooling atoms to a point 
     extremely close to absolute zero and trapping them in a 
     magnetic or laser field for study.
       Jin is doing similar work now, reducing potassium atoms to 
     a temperature 50 billionths of a degree above absolute zero--
     the point, near 459.6 degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit 
     scale, at which all motion stops. At that temperature, the 
     atoms form a vapor of sorts and ``degenerate,'' acting more 
     like waves than particles, a phenomenon predicted decades ago 
     by physicist Enrico Fermi. Jin has been recognized 
     internationally for identifying this ``vaporphase degenerate 
     Fermi gas.''
       Her latest award, from the MacArthur Foundation, and the 
     no-strings-attached half-million-dollar grant that goes with 
     it, could have ``a lot of uses in my life,'' Jin said. ``I 
     could use it for a new laser. I could definitely use it for 
     secretarial support, because we don't have that in this lab. 
     Or maybe it can be college money for my daughter.''
       One thing the prize won't do, Jin said, is induce her to 
     move her research elsewhere. ``NIST has been a fantastic 
     place to do the kind of work I'm involved in,'' she said. ``I 
     don't think I'll be leaving the government any time soon.''

                          ____________________