Hui Cao
Hui Cao (曹蕙) is a Chinese American physicist who is the professor of applied physics, a professor of physics and a professor of electrical engineering at Yale University. Her research interests are mesoscopic physics, complex photonic materials and devices, with a focus on non-conventional lasers and their unique applications. She is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Early life and education Cao became interested in physics as a young child, when her father, a professor of physics at Peking University, asked her what travels furthest and fastest. When she learned that the answer was light, she became fascinated by the discipline of optics. Cao earned her undergraduate degree in physics at Peking University. She moved to the United States for her graduate studies, where she joined Princeton University as a graduate student in mechanical & aerospace engineering. She enjoyed the focus of the United States' training on independent, inquisitive thinking. After completing her master's degree, Cao joined Stanford University as a PhD student in applied physics. At Stanford she worked on semiconductor cavity quantum electrodynamics with Yamamoto Yoshihisa. Her doctoral research was published as a monograph by