Yao Lu
Technology Thrust Deputy Leader
Systems Design, Lead
Associate Scientist, Fermilab
Yao Lu is the Technology Thrust Deputy Leader and Systems Design Lead at Fermilab’s SQMS Center. His research at SQMS focuses on developing SRF-cavity-based quantum hardware for fast, scalable, high-fidelity quantum information processing. He is a recipient of the 2025 U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award for leveraging 3D circuit QED toward quantum-enhanced sensing.
Yao’s core expertise is in novel superconducting circuit design and quantum control schemes, especially parametric control and tunable couplers that enable error-correctable/detectable operations. He also brings the engineering toolkit needed to turn designs into working hardware, including microwave engineering, finite-element electromagnetic simulation, and cryogenic RF measurement and system integration.
Prior to joining SQMS in 2023, Yao was a postdoctoral scholar at Yale University in Prof. Robert Schoelkopf’s group. He received his PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. David Schuster.