Elizabeth Donley

Elizabeth Ann Donley (born April 5, 1970) is an American physicist. She is a researcher in the time and frequency division at the Physical Measurement Laboratory. Donley's research areas include the operation and development of atomic fountain clocks and chip scale atomic devices and instruments.

Life
Donley was born on April 5, 1970. She completed a B.S. in physics from University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1994. Donley earned a M.S. in physics at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1996. Donley completed her doctoral studies in Switzerland, earning a Ph.D. in natural sciences from ETH Zurich in 2000. Her thesis was titled Single-molecule spectroscopy at subkelvin temperatures. Donley's doctoral advisor was Urs Wild. Her postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado Boulder was on ultracold atomic physics with 2001 Nobel Laureates Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell.

Donley joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2002 as a research physicist in the Time and Frequency Division at the Physical Measurement Laboratory; in 2018 she became its Division Chief. She has served in a number of leadership positions for the IEEE professional society. Donley's research areas include the operation and development of atomic fountain clocks and chip scale atomic devices and instruments, for which she has won the Department of Commerce Gold Medal in 2004 and 2014. In 2022, she won the IEEE C. B. Sawyer Memorial Award.