Jake Higgins (they/them)
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Jake was born and raised in Arkansas, where they attended Hendrix College and graduated with a degree in Chemical Physics in 2016. Jake attended the University of Chicago for graduate school where they worked in Professors Greg Engel’s lab. There, they used two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy to study the functional role of vibronic coupling in photosynthetic light harvesting proteins. They earned their Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2022.
Jake was then a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Jun Ye’s atomic, molecular, and optical physics lab at JILA and the University of Colorado Boulder from 2022 to 2025. At JILA, Jake helped build the world’s first nuclear clock using the low-energy thorium-229 nuclear transition probed with ultraviolet frequency combs.
Now, Jake is a postdoctoral fellow in the Gaynor group building multiple dimensional spectroscopy tools using extreme ultraviolet pulses, with the goal of studying systems relevant for energy applications and quantum sensing.
Notable Awards
Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, 2015
NSF-Graduate Research Fellow, 2018-2021
Joan Shiu Chemistry Department Student Service Award, University of Chicago, 2019
NIST NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2022-2024
JEDI (JILA Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion) Award, JILA & CU Boulder, 2023
International Institute for Nanotechnology Postdoctoral Fellowship, Northwestern University, 2025-present
Previous Degrees
BA in Chemical Physics, Hendrix College, 2016
MS in Chemistry, University of Chicago, 2017
PhD in Chemistry, University of Chicago, 2022
Favorites
Extra-curricular Activities: Trying new restaurants, reading, crocheting, and taking pictures of my cat (Tate Higgins!)
Favorite Authors: bell hooks, Oscar Wilde, Leslie Feinberg
Scientist: Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi
Carbohydrates: Pasta, bread, potatoes, rice, potato pasta