Yale Engineering's top 10 stories of 2025

At Yale Engineering, 2025 was a year of breakthrough discoveries, global recognition, and remarkable community growth.

The school celebrated one of science's highest honors when Michel H. Devoret, Frederick W. Beinecke Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for pioneering work that helped launch the quantum computing revolution. The achievement underscored Yale Engineering's longstanding leadership in quantum science - a field that continues to evolve through innovative projects like the quantum network stretching 44 kilometers over Long Island Sound.

Across laboratories and research centers, faculty and students advanced solutions to pressing global challenges: transforming plastic waste into usable fuel, developing safer and more agile robots, and creating sustainable materials from wood waste. New faculty members expanded the school's capabilities in mobile sensing, neuroelectronics, and biomedical imaging, while researchers pushed the boundaries of photonics, fluid dynamics, and materials science. And on Becton Plaza, students celebrated Declaration Day and Hoodie Day - annual traditions that mark their commitment to engineering and their place in a supportive, collaborative community that has grown by 60 percent over the past five years.

As the year draws to a close, we present ten of our favorite stories from 2025, moments that showcased the ingenuity, impact, and boundless curiosity that define Yale Engineering.

1. Michel H. Devoret wins the Nobel Prize

Michel H. Devoret, Frederick W. Beinecke Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics, was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for “the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit."

The recognition, which Devoret shares with John Clarke of UC Berkeley and John M. Martinis of UC Santa Barbara, honors work that demonstrated some of the eerie properties of quantum mechanics and laid the groundwork for the quantum revolution unfolding across laboratories and industries today.

“It showed that you can do controlled experiments to measure quantum behaviors of macroscopic objects, and within a few years, there were experiments with quantum bits,” said Sohrab Ismail-Beigi, chair of Yale’s Department of Applied Physics. [Oct. 7]

2. Turning trash into fuel

As tons of plastic waste continue to build up in landfills every day, Yale researchers have developed a way to efficiently and cheaply turn waste into something useful. Led by Yale Engineering professors Liangbing Hu and Shu Hu, they’re using a method known as pyrolysis, a process of using heat in the absence of oxygen to molecularly break materials down. In this case, it’s used to break plastics down to the components that produce fuels and other products.
Conventional methods of pyrolysis often use a catalyst, but it’s expensive and requires a lot of maintenance. Without a catalyst, though, the conversion rate is very low.

The Yale researchers cleared these obstacles by developing a 3D-printed electrically heated carbon column reactor that allowed them to precisely control the process. The result was an impressively high rate of converting wasteful plastics into useful chemicals. [July 23]

3. Lasers over the Sound

With three laser beams that will shoot from the top of Kline Tower and travel 44 kilometers over Long Island Sound to Stony Brook University, Yale students and faculty could help transform quantum computing, cryptography, and satellite communications.

Led by Professor Hong Tang, a team of undergraduate students aim to show that the exchange of quantum information is possible through free space. Beyond the practical applications, Tang said the project is designed to serve as an educational tool and to catch the public’s attention. The idea of qubits flying over Long Island Sound, he said, “will incite the public’s curiosity in quantum sciences and help propel the next generation of engineers and scientists.” [May 22]

4. Celebrating community: Declaration Day & Hoodie Day

Yale Engineering's Declaration Day and Hoodie Day brought students together on Becton Plaza to mark major milestones in their academic journeys. At Declaration Day, undergraduates celebrated choosing their engineering majors, while juniors received their coveted Yale Engineering hoodies – symbols of their hard work, late nights, big ideas, and the friendships forged along the way.

The celebrations reflected the school's remarkable 60 percent growth in undergraduate enrollment over the past five years and the collaborative spirit that defines the community. Even Handsome Dan stopped by for pets, popcorn, and photos.

"Engineering at Yale doesn't teach you what to think, it teaches you how to think which is a great understanding to have going into industry," said Erika Nunez '27, Chemical Engineering.

For these students, the hoodies represent more than school pride – they're a symbol of belonging to a creative community and all that's ahead. [Sept. 19 & Nov. 19]

See Hoodie Day in photos

5. Faster, smarter, more agile robots

Envisioning a day when robots will commonly operate inside homes and offices, Yale researchers are working on automated devices that adapt to real-world environments and work safely side-by-side with humans.

To create a faster and more graceful robot, Professor Danny Rakita is making use of derivatives, a core concept of calculus. Derivatives provide information that allows for swift calculations when they’re needed, such as regaining balance or performing a backward flip. As a result, his devices are seven to 10 times faster than traditional methods.

“When you put them side by side, it really feels like the others are stuck in the mud,” Rakita said. [Sept. 9]

6. Yale team creates revolutionary chip-scale optical isolator

A Yale Engineering team developed a revolutionary chip-scale optical isolator that could dramatically expand the capabilities of photonic integrated circuits. Traditional isolators rely on magnetic materials incompatible with standard chip manufacturing, but the group led by Applied Physics professor Peter T. Rakich and graduate student Haotian Cheng created a non-magnetic, acousto-optic design that allowed light to travel in one direction while blocking it in the other. The device achieved an optical bandwidth of about two terahertz - vastly broader than previous technologies - making it far more practical for real-world applications.

“This could significantly reduce the cost of optical-communications devices,” Cheng said.

If widely adopted, the innovation could accelerate advances in telecommunications, sensing, and quantum optics. [Apr. 15]

7. A pinch of salt stirs up a surprising physical phenomenon

Yale Engineering researchers discovered that a simple “pinch of salt” can trigger a surprising physical phenomenon: by creating a salt concentration gradient in fluid, they caused suspended particles to move - offering a potential new method to steer colloids in liquids. The research, led by Mechanical Engineering professor Amir A. Pahlavan and graduate student Haoyu Liu, showed that diffusiophoresis - the motion of colloids induced by dissolved-substance gradients - can be harnessed using salt instead of electric or magnetic fields. Their experiments even generated swirling flows that reversed typical particle behavior, suggesting salt gradients might be used instead of complex apparatuses.

“Chemical gradient is actually everywhere in our natural systems and also in our industrial processes,” Liu said. “So this phenomenon has drawn very much interest from scientists and engineers.”

The finding could lead to simpler, more accessible approaches for water purification, environmental cleanup, or targeted drug delivery. Later in the year, Pahlavan earned an NSF CAREER Award recognizing this line of research. [Mar. 5]

8. Getting to know new Electrical & Computer Engineering faculty

New Electrical & Computer Engineering faculty members Tara Boroushaki and Claudia Cea

Yale Engineering highlighted the continued growth of its Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering this year with two feature profiles introducing new faculty members Tara Boroushaki and Claudia Cea. In her interview, Boroushaki discussed her work in mobile sensing and wireless systems - technologies that help everyday devices perceive the world in new ways. Cea’s profile explored her research in soft, bio-integrated neuroelectronics, including flexible devices designed to illuminate communication between the brain and body. Together, the interviews showcased the department’s expanding strengths in fast-moving fields at the intersection of computing, health, and human-centered technologies. [Sept. 18 & Oct. 28]

9. From galaxies to neurons

Bringing together ideas from astronomy and neuroscience, Yale Engineering profiled Biomedical Engineering professor Cristina Rodríguez and her work adapting optical techniques once used to study distant galaxies to now examine the brain and spinal cord. Her research applied tools such as adaptive optics and three-photon fluorescence microscopy to visualize neurons and calcium signaling deep within living tissue - revealing activity at depths previously thought unreachable.

“It’s a very powerful technology that is also incredibly useful in the context of microscopy,” Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez’s interdisciplinary approach is opening new possibilities in biomedical imaging and expanding what scientists can observe within complex neural systems. [Apr. 18]

10. Turning to trees for sustainable photoluminescence

Yale Engineering spotlighted a sustainable materials breakthrough in which researchers created photoluminescent emitters from wood waste rather than toxic metals. Co-authors Ho-Yin (Leo) Tse and Hanno Erythropel, and professors Julie Zimmerman and Paul Anastas developed a solid-state material made from lignin, a paper manufacturing by-product, combined with the amino acid histidine. The result offered a renewable, non-hazardous alternative to conventional emitters.

“We developed photoluminescent materials solely based on a waste product … without requiring heavy metals or halogens such as bromine,” Erythropel said.

The work pointed to a greener future for displays, sensors, and optoelectronic devices. Later in the year, Zimmerman was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for her leadership in green technology and sustainability. [Oct. 22]