Cyndia Yu

I am a sixth year PhD candidate in the Department of Physics at Stanford University. I work on superconducting devices for particle astrophysics and cosmic microwave background (CMB) analysis.

I am affiliated with the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford/SLAC. I am a member and/or builder for the BICEP/Keck, Simons Observatory, and CMB-S4 collaborations.

Before coming to Stanford, I graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Physics and Mathematics in 2016. Between my undergraduate and graduate studies, I spent a year at Columbia Business School working as a research associate in the division of Decision, Risk, and Operations. I hail from the sunny state of Arizona.

For the new and improved version of me, see my sister.

Research

As a member of several large collaborations, I am on the author list for almost 50 publications. A selected list is highlighted below.

1. C. Yu et al., "SLAC Microresonator RF (SMuRF) Electronics: A tone-tracking readout system for microwave resonator-based cryogenic arrays". Rev. Sci. Inst. 94, 014712, 2023. arXiv:2208.10523.
2. C. Yu et al., "A simulation suite for SMuRF tone-tracking electronics". Proc. SPIE 2022. arXiv:2208.02198.
3. M. Silva-Feaver et al. (incl. C. Yu), "Phase drift monitoring for tone-tracking readout of superconducting microwave resonators". Proc. SPIE 2022. arXiv:2208.02854.
4. C. Yu et al., "Bandwidth and Aliasing in the Microwave SQUID Multiplexer". J. Low Temp. Phys, 2022. arXiv:2206.09066
5. The BICEP/Keck Collaboration, "BK-XV: The BICEP3 CMB Polarimeter and the First Three Year Data Set". ApJ 927(1):77, 2022. arXiv:2110.00482.
6. The BICEP/Keck Collaboration, "BK-XIII: Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves using Planck, WMAP, and BICEP/Keck Observations through the 2018 Observing Season". Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 151301, 2021. arXiv:2110.00483.
7. H. McCarrick et al. (incl. C. Yu), "The Simons Observatory microwave SQUID multiplexing detector module design". ApJ 922(1):38, 2021. arXiv:2106.14797.
8. B. Dober et al. (incl. C. Yu), "A Microwave SQUID Multiplexer Optimized for Bolometric Applications". Appl. Phys. Lett 118, 062601, 2021. arXiv:2010.07998.
9. C. Yu et al., "Z-CDM: An Impedance-Modulated Code-Division Multiplexer with Microwave SQUIDs". Eng. Res. Exp. 2, 015011. arXiv:2001.02763.
10. A. Cukierman, et al. (incl. C. Yu), "Microwave SQUID multiplexing on the Keck Array". J. Low Temp. Phys. 199, 858-866, 2020. arXiv:1909.01305.
11. S.Y.F. Zhao, et al. (incl. C. Yu), "Sign-reversing Hall effect in atomically thin high temperature BSCCO superconductors". Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 247001, 2019. arXiv:1809.06944.
12. S.W. Henderson, et al. (incl. C. Yu), "Highly-multiplexed microwave SQUID readout using the SLAC Microresonator Radio Frequency (SMuRF) electronics for future CMB and sub-millimeter surveys". Proc. SPIE 1070819, 2018. arXiv:1809.03689.
13. S.Y.F. Zhao, et al. (incl. C. Yu), "Controlled Electrochemical Intercalation of Graphene/h-BN van der Waals Heterostructures". Nano Lett. 18, 1, 460-466, 2018. arXiv:1710.07877.

Teaching

I served as a TA for the following courses:

I am committed to inclusive teaching and best practices for science education. In Fall 2021, I was a member of the Physics/Astrophysics project team working with the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning on redesigning the Introductory Astronomy series (Physics 15/16/17) through the IDEAL Pedagogy program. If you are interested in receiving a copy of our full set of recommendations, feel free to reach out.

Outreach

I am passionate about science outreach and excited about sharing the joys of my work with learners of all ages. Linked below are a few of my publicly available outreach events. If you would like access to slides or other information, please contact me.

Contact